A Doctors Journey
by kchix
Summary: I have been working on an idea for a story for some time and finally decided to put pen to paper so to speak. I was interested in the concept of Pokemon Doctors, both from the games and anime and decided to think about what happens when these people learn their trade and go on their own journey. I have based this journey in the Unova region.
1. Chapter 1

A Doctors Journey

A Pokemon Fanfiction

Chapter 1 - Graduation

"Well Peter, I guess this is it?" Jake said extending his hand.

Peter paused briefly regarding his friends exited, smiling face. His long brown hair was falling over his eyes almost covering them causing him to blink uncontrollably. In the background there was a huge cheer as someone set off some firecrackers and a huge ribbon that read 'Congratulations Graduates!' hung from the wall.

"Y-Yeah, I guess so…" Peter said, distracted by the loud noise. he took Jake's hand and shook it firmly, "You take care of yourself."

"You.." Jake paused as he was barged to one side by an excited blonde girl in a black and pink dress running down the hall, "Geez!"

"Sorry!" The mystery girl called, glancing back over her shoulder, "My Tepig hates loud noises, he ran off this way I'm sure of it.."

"Hey, I'll help you look…." Jake span on his heel to face the girl, who had paused looking back at the two.

Peter watched him jog a few steps before turning his head once more, wiping the hair from his eyes he shouted "Good luck in Opelucid City!"

"Thanks, and you at Striaton.." Peter replied, his words tailing off as Jake disappeared after the girl, "keep in touch I guess.." He said to himself as they disappeared into the crowd.

Jake never could turn down an opportunity to 'introduce' himself to those of the opposite sex, Peter grinned as he recalled the many failed attempts of his friend to chat up girls they had met during their studies.

One thing remained before Peter could leave the college campus and begin his travels - he was due to meet with the campus trainer to pick up his first Pokemon to accompany him on his journey. Unlike many of the others Peter had not raced to Professor Juniper when he was 10 years old to pick his starter. Instead he focused on his studies and helping his father on the farm. He didn't feel he had missed out too much until recently when he released how much his friends had grown as trainers. He loved to watch the Pokemon training battles in the playing fields, amazed by the agility and skill of the Pokemon and their trainers - but he felt so sure he didn't have time for bringing a Pokemon up to its full potential whilst studying so hard for his Pokemon Doctors certificate. Besides he often worked with Pokemon on the farm and helped to train his fathers Samurott.

But now, now he was about to start his own journey and whilst he felt confident in his new medical abilities, he was a complete novice as a Pokemon trainer.

He started pushing his was through the crowd of people along the corridor, he took a left through a set of wooden double doors and suddenly he was all alone. The walls were wood panelled half way to the ceiling with the rest painted white. There was a smell of disinfectant and the wooden parquet floor was perfectly clean. On either side of the corridor were doors to the training labs where the students would practice their skills. Peter felt he had spent a lifetime in this place, but the corridor being this empty made the place feel unfamiliar.

He took a right at the next T-Junction which lead him through another set of wooden double doors, they echoed on their hinges as he pushed through. In this corridor there was a solid wall down the right hand side, but on the left was a row of large windows overlooking the playing fields. Peter glanced over at the view.

A large neatly kept grass field with 3 Pokemon courts. The courts were ringed by a wire fence and viewing areas. On the far side of the courts was a long thin brick building with small rectangular windows.

As Peter neared the end of the corridor the smell changed from disinfectant to that of freshly cut grass. He opened the double doors in front of him and stepped outside into the sunshine. He stepped down two small steps onto a white gravel path. He paused taking a deep breath and enjoying the feeling of the warm sunlight on his face. He began his walk to the rectangular building, his shoes making a satisfying crunching sound on the gravel path.

He was directly alongside the Pokemon courts now, he could see the grass worn down where the trainers stood in battle leaving a dusty imprint. Various small imperfections could be seen in the ground where more powerful attacks had taken place. Peter let his mind wonder to all the fascinating battles he had seen here over the years, it was so strange for it to be so silent and empty.

He approached the rectangular building, on the outside a plaque read 'Pokemon nursery'. Peter glanced down at his shoes, the once brown brogues had been sprinkled with dusty white powder from the path. He crouched down and tried to wipe off the worst of it with his hand before entering. Just at that moment the door sprang open hitting Peter on the top of his head, knocking him onto his back.

"Axxxxxxx!" Shouted an excited Axew as it stood in the doorway. It jumped down the small step and was about to start running along the path when it saw Peter.

"Axew?" It asked, cocking its head.

"Oh my goodness!" Came a voice from the door way. Peter looked up to see a kindly grey haired old woman wearing a brown knitted jumper, long thick blue skirt and fluffy pink slippers, "Peter, is that you? Are you alight?"

"I think so…" Peter said blinking deeply and rubbing his head. He looked at his hand after touching his short brown hair, no blood.

"Axew, what have I told you about bursting through that door! You need to check the window first!" The old woman called to the Axew, who had started to walk back towards her slowly, its head bowed in shame.

"Its ok, I was bent over, he couldn't have seen me. I am sure he checked - right Axew?" Peter said, looking over at the small dragon type and winking.

"Ax-Axew!" Axew said, jumping up and down and pointing at Peter.

"Hm, very well then," The old lady said knowingly, "Well if you are ok I guess there is no harm done… You are sure you are fine?"

Peter noticed he had been sat on the floor this whole time. He climbed to his feet, noting his shoes were still coated with the powder.

"Yes, don't think anymore of it, Mrs Clague." He said, touching his head again he could feel a small bump starting to appear, "May I come in?"

"Of course," Mrs Clague said, picking up the Axew, "Actually there may be something you can help with!"

Peter followed the pair, inside was a large long room with an office space at one end. The rest of the room was filled with interesting toys and games for Pokemon. The old lady walked slowly towards the office space.

Along one the back of this space was a large sliding glass door which lead out to a small play area with a small wooden fence. There was a slide and a tyre swing which hung from the branch of a large old tree which grew next to the building. The old lady opened the door and put the Axew outside on the grass. It ran off giggling and climbed up onto the slide.

Along the other wall was a large shelf split into box like compartments. Each one had a padded floor and held a Pokeball. These were the college Pokemon, which were loaned to students during classes and for training.

"Peter, what do you make of this.." The old woman took a Pokeball from the shelf and threw it into the air, "Fraxure come out!"

Peter watched as the evolved form of Axew appeared in front of them. It stood about 3 feet tall, had a grey and red spotted body with a green "hood." It had long white tusks protruding at right angles from the side of its head with red tips.

"Yes, I remember Fraxure." Peter said, crouching down and reaching out to pet the Pokemon. As Peter's had approached the Pokemon recoiled and stepped backwards.

"Dont take offence," The old lady said, scratching her nose, "He's been like this with everyone for a day or so now."

"Hey Fraxure," Peter said softly still crouching down, "Its ok you remember me right?"

The fraxure looked at Peter but continued to back away, it growled slightly as it did so.

"Very odd isn't it?" The old woman said, leaning back on the desk and sighing.

"Indeed," Peter frowned, looking up noticing on the desk was a box of Pokemon food, "could you pass me one of those?" Peter gestured to the pot of biscuits.

The old woman took one of the treats from the box and tossed it to Peter. He edged closer to fraxure, "Here buddy, this is for you.."

Fraxure sniffed the treat then groaned and turned his head away, "Fraxure…." It moaned.

At this point the young Axew outside had noticed there was food on offer and came skipping in. As he got a alongside Fraxure it snapped at the younger Pokemon as a warning not to come near. Axew jumped and ran under Peter's white lab coat for protection.

"Fraxure, please - Im here to help you.." Peter said, edging closer still. He could feel Axew pulling on his lab coat tugging him back. He glanced back, "Its okay Axew." he said tossing him the Pokemon food.

Axew caught it carefully and ran back to a comfy chair near to the main door. It struggled up onto the cushion and turned around to watch Peter and Fraxure.

Peter edged ever closer to the Pokemon, ever wary of its huge tusks which were about head height whilst Peter was crouched like this. He reached out his hand again slowly. The Fraxure bowed its head slightly, but allowed Peter to touch.

Peter felt the Pokemon's smooth skin under his palm. He gently stroked Fraxure's snout.

"Hes very hot," He remarked, taking his other hand he checked the Pokemons arms before moving his hand to the chest plate and belly. As Peter's fingers rested on the small dragons belly it let out a growl and swiped with his tusks. Peter dodged backwards and fell on his backside.

"Well, I think thats where the issue is!" He exclaimed, "Has Fraxure eaten anything different to the other Pokemon recently? Or in battle did he take any body blows or anything like that?"

"Not that I can remember." Mrs Clague said, running her fingers through her grey curly hair.

"Interesting." Peter said, climbing to his feet. He scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Has he been off the campus recently where he could have eaten something bad perhaps?"

"Well, a group of the students did take him with them to dinner with them to celebrate the graduation- but that was a couple of days ago - he was perfectly fine when they brought in back."

"Well, I suggest you have one of the professors take a look as soon as…" Peter was cut off by a deep voice,

"Have you just graduated as a Pokemon Doctor, Son?" The voice asked.

Peter turned around and was face to face with a short bald man with thick glasses and neatly trimmed moustache. He had deep lines on his face from age which gave him a very intellectual look. He was wearing white shirt with thin red and blue stripes. He had a lab coat similar to Peters with a high collar which ran to his knees showing brown corduroy trousers. The man reached into his lab pocket and produced a small pipe which is took to his mouth and chewed on.

"Professor Fir… "

"Well son, you ARE a Pokemon Doctor aren't you?" The professor pressed.

"Yes sir, but…" Peter was cut off again,

"And what is your diagnosis?" The professor asked ignoring Peter's protest.

"Well," Peter paused looking over at the Fraxure still standing by the desk, "I would say its clearly some kind of stomach upset, or perhaps an obstruction."

"Obstruction you say?" The professor raised an eyebrow, "And why would you think this?"

"Well, since the symptoms only occurred after Fraxure came out of the Pokeball some time after he was dropped off by the group…. sir." Peter paused, "If it were some bad food, or poisoning from that I would expect that he would have had some reaction before this point."

"Hmm, very good.. " The professor nodded, "OK, I will trust your diagnosis. So what would you do if this is the case?"

"Well, we really need to examine further." Peter looked back at the professor, "but the first thing I want to do is relieve this Pokemon's obvious discomfort."

"Very good, Mrs Clague please return Fraxure to his Pokeball…" The Professor gestured towards the old lady. She called for Fraxure to return and the Pokeball released a stream of energy which surrounded the Dragon which then disappeared back inside.

"So, if you are on your journey and you come across a weakened Fraxure who is in this situation - what would you do next?"

"Well, I think we would need to release any pressure there, we'd need some tubing and…."

"No, we would always return the Pokemon to the pokeball and go to the nearest medical centre. At this point, you can continue your work but remember, we would never risk the health of a Pokemon by making a snap judgement call - the Pokeball can keep the Pokemon safe until we can reach a safe environment to treat them." The professor jumped in.

"Yes sir, I m…."

"THAT being said," The professor again interrupted, "not bad for a first "real world diagnosis." The professor grinned, patting Peter on the shoulder roughly, "I think you will do just fine out there."

"Axxx!" Axew shouted and started clapping from the easy chair.

"Thank you, sir!" Peter smiled.

The old lady shuffled over and extended her arm containing Fraxures Pokeball in order to offer it to Peter.

"I'll take that, Peter needs to think about getting going…" Professor Fir said, taking the Pokeball.

"Actually sir, i'm here to pick up my Pokemon." Peter said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Oh yes!" Mrs Clague said urgently, "Your Pokemon will be waiting for you when you get to Opelucid City."

"Oh, I thought I was to collect it here.. " Peter stopped before he sounded too much like he was complaining, "Great, thanks."

"I do have this for you, however.." The lady took a small red and white device out of the desk drawer and handed it to Peter.

"Ah great, you updated my Pokedex!"

The old lady nodded and smiled.

Peter thanked the professor and the old lady. Before he left the nursery he made sure to make a big fuss of the young Axew who gave him a big hug before he stepped out of the building.

He felt bitterly disappointed that he would not meet his new Pokemon until Opelucid as this meant he would be travelling alone. Still, at least that would mean he had time to read up on the texts again and be ready for any challenge in the new hospital. He also couldn't help but get a surge of pride after diagnosing the Fraxure to the professors expectation. He felt more confident than ever of his abilities.


	2. Chapter 2 The Road to Accumula Town

Chapter 2 - The Road to Accumula Town

"So, you're first stop will be Accumula Town?" An elderly man asked on the video screen.

"Yes, Dad," Peter said, "Then through to Striaton. I'm going to stick to the main routes through the towns."

The elderly man laughed which caused his thick white moustache to quiver and deep crows feet to appear around his eyes betraying the years of hard work Peters father had done to keep the farm running, "Where is your sense of adventure?!"

"Adventure can come after I get to Opelucid." Peter said dryly, "When I have a Pokemon partner to adventure with."

"Haha, I am sure you will meet some characters along the way,"Peters father smiled, recalling his own journey, "Of course things have changed a bit since my time on the road."

"Yes, yes Dad, I remember you had it tough - struggling through with your Oshawott all alone .." Peter said mimicking his fathers voice.

"You'll see," He said looking off screen, "Wont he Samurott?"

The Pokemon barked in the background. Peter smiled at the sound, he had spent many hours playing with Samurott over the years.

"You look after him Samurott, ok?" Peter called into the screen, leaning forward.

The Pokemon barked again as Peters father laughed.

"Well you take care," The old man said, "...and don't be afraid to enjoy yourself a bit on the way, huh?"

Peter smiled at the screen, "See ya."

Peters father waved at the screen as it went blank. Peter paused thoughtfully looking into the black monitor before picking up his black medical bag. He hoped his father would be ok. He still refused to take outside help with the farm and did everything himself. It was a tough life and Peter felt a little guilty for leaving him - had his father not continued to urge Peter to go on a journey of his own he would almost certainly still be there.

He turned, flung his bag over his shoulder and stepped out into the daylight. The street was full of people shopping - many had Pokemon of various types walking by their side or up on the shoulders. Peter regarded a particularly well groomed Oshawott with a pink bow on its head, being carried in a pink handbag. The owner of the handbag was a tall girl who wore a pink dress and matching pink shoes. Her blonde hair waved around her shoulders as she took long strides through the crowd.

He looked away to see an elderly man who was picking Oranges from a stall and and handing them to a golett who was holding a box full of various food items. The old man was closely examining each one much to the frustration of the stall owner.

Peter pushed on through the crowded street. After picking up some essential food supplies he embarked on his journey to Accumula. He had heard that there was a large battle club there and was excited to see what kinds of Pokemon he would find, he had heard trainers even come from outside of Unova to battle.

He hadn't been walking long when the paved streets suddenly started giving way to gravel path. Peter walked up a short hill to a sign which read - "Nuvema Town - City Limit."

He stopped at the sign and looked back, from the hill he could see the whole town - and there on the far side was the College campus. It looked so small from here. He could just make out the Pokemon battle courts. He rummaged around in his bag and pulled out an old camera which he used to snap a few shots of the city before continuing on.

The path was quite wide, easily enough for 3 people to walk side by side. Along each side of the path was a small bank and beyond that a forest of trees. Everything was a deep green colour and the smell of flowers and grass permeated the air. He was all alone by now, having left the crowds of the city far behind. all he could hear was the sound of singing flying Pokemon, or the buzzing of some bug types. Peter almost fell into a trance at how serene this place was.

Suddenly a human shout pierced the tranquility, Peter could trace it as coming from his right, in the forest. Intrigued he scaled the large bank and passed the trees lining the top. After pushing through the branches he he stopped in awe. The landscape in front of him was carved into a natural depression, with a steep bank all around ringed by trees. At the bottom was a flat surface where two people stood facing each other. Peter carefully stepped down to the midway point of the hillside to get a better view.

On his right was a girl about 18 years old. She was wearing a long white dress which came to her ankles, just showing a pair of white sneakers. Her dress was held in place with a black belt with large buckle around her waist and her long thick golden hair shone as the sun reflected on it.

To his left stood a short chubby boy, Peter guessed he was no more than 10. He had a black T-shirt with what Peter could just make out to be a small Pokeball emblem on the left chest side, a pair of red shorts with a black stripe on the side and red training shoes. He was running his hands through his short hair whilst skipping from side to side like a boxer in the ring.

"Well, are we going to battle or not? I don't got all day." The boy called in a southern, 'cowboy' accent.

Just then movement just below him caught his attention. Peter couldn't make out if it was a boy or a girl in a long Orange coat which had a hood with protrusions shaped like the antennae on a Drangonite's head jutting out from the top.

The orange coat moved into a position centrally to the side of the two.

"Of course, I said I would." The girl on the right remarked, "My sister will adjudicate, right Jade?"

"Sure." The Orange coat shouted back.

"Well, quit stallin' and show me what you got!" The boy on the left demanded.

"Very well," Smirked the girl in the white dress, "Dewott lets show them what we can do!"

'All right!' Thought Peter, thinking back to his fathers Samurott. He grabbed his camera from his bag and used the zoom lens to get a better look.

The girl threw the Pokeball into the air and a very confident looking Dewott somersaulted and landed firmly on the ground in front of her.

Its fur was a light blue with a 'belt' of dark blue around its waist and upper legs. On each thigh it carried the familiar 'sea shell' scalchop. Peter zoomed in again and clicked the shutter button admiring the Dewott's long whiskers and messy 'hairstyle' which was obviously especially groomed.

Peter had pretty much made his mind that if the boy didn't pull out an Oshawott then he would be cheering for the girl. Even though as a Pokemon Doctor Peter was expected to use mainly bug types along with an Audino, he had a passion for water Pokemon taking after his father. Especially the Oshawott line after all the fun times he remembered working with Samurott.

"OK, Snivy lets see if you can prove yourself worthy this time." The boys words almost seemed to come out as a sigh. He snapped his wrist and flung the pokeball towards the ground.

Peter panned his camera over to the boy and watched as the Snivy appeared out of the pokeball and stumbled backwards. Peter frowned, there was something off here. He tried to zoom his camera in further but it was at maximum already. Peter realised that this Snivy was just really small, much smaller than those he had seen given as starters previously even. He maintained his watch on the small grass snake Pokemon, its head was down and it was gently swaying from side to side. It looked exhausted already and the leaf on its tail was drooping downwards.

"Hey, ummm, is it okay?" Jade asked, pointing her Orange coated arm at the Snivy, "It looks kinda... sad.."

"Mind your own business," The boy snapped, "I know the limits of all my Pokemon. You wait and see - hell, you're not even old enough to be a trainer so what'd you know anyway."

Jade dropped her arm to her side and put her hands on her hips, "Well, I guess..." She glanced over at her sister.

Peter panned the camera back to the girl in the white dress, he noticed her Dewott was looking back at her nervously.

"Fine, we will finish this quickly then.." The girl said. The dewott's head turned back to face the still swaying Snivy and the boy. At that moment the pair both crossed their arms in unison.

"If you guys are sure," Jade said, "Then begin the battle!"

"Dewott, lets finish this quickly with double razer shell!" The girl shouted, as she flung her arm forward in a gesturing motion toward the small Snivy.

"Dewwww-wHAATTT" The Pokemon called, snatching the two scalchops from its sides. Peter watched through the camera lens as they started to glow blue and form sharp pointed swords.

"Hah, Snivy counter it." The boy said smugly.

Peter panned his camera back to the snivy which stood still swaying. He took his eye away from the viewfinder and glanced over to the Dewott who was now running at full steam, scalchops trailing behind ready to strike.

The chubby boy glanced down at his Pokemon, frustrated that it had not obeyed his command.

"I said counter it you little looser!" He shouted, pushing the snivy forward with his foot.

The snivy stumbled forward two steps, directly into the path of the Dewott's attack.

The otter pokemon swang its blades with elegance, its form looked really well rehearsed as made a direct connection to the left side of the snivy's head, first one blade, then the other.

The snivy let out a screeching noise which made Peter shudder, and collapsed to the ground.

"Well Snivy, get up you're embarrassing me." The boy said through gritted teeth.

There was a short pause, Peter grabbed his bag, got up from his viewpoint and started to stumble down the bank as fast as he could. The girl in the white dress said nothing, seemingly giving the other trainer some time to recover. Dewott took two steps back and glanced over its shoulder again, breathing heavily it elegantly placed its scalchops back onto its thighs being sure they were locked in place.

"Snivy is unable to battle..." Jade announced, but before she could complete her sentence she was interrupted,

"Shut it, this isn't over yet," The boy said, gritting his teeth once more, "Get up you little looser, this is the third time today damn it!"

"Third time? Geez.." Peter mumbled as he completed his decent of the bank. He ran past the girl in the Orange coat startling her, "This battle is over." He said as he passed her.

Jade took two steps to her right looking quizzically at Peter as he ran by, "Tha-thats what I said, Snivy is unable to battle, therefore Kelly is the winner.."

"Hey jerk," The chubby kid said as Peter got closer, "Who the hell do you think you are interfering with our battle?"

Peter ignored him and crouched down next to the injured grass snake Pokemon. It was clutching the bottom of its head with its stubby arms and it was shivering.

Peter looked upwards towards the boy, "What the hell have you done to this Pokemon?!"

"I trained it." The boy said abruptly.

"Trained it?" Peter said, continuing his examination of the Pokemon, "You have nearly killed it!"

Peter turned the Pokemon onto its side, he could see that it had its eyes tightly shut. Down the left side of its head were long double scars, very close together, very clean. Both these cuts went right from the top of Snivy's head to its neck, right over its large left eye. Peter was concerned, this Snivy looked weak before the battle, it had very little energy left.

"Dont talk junk to me, this Pokemon is a total looser," Shouted the boy turning red, "It lost 3 battles today alone. Its like it just wants to humiliate me!"

"3 Battles today?" Came another voice, Peter looked over to see the girl in the white dress standing alongside him, "It must be exhausted, there isn't a Pokemon centre for miles..."

"Can someone pass me a revive?" Peter said, looking up, catching the boys eye for the first time.

"I ran out." The boy said sarcastically.

Peter turned to face the other trainer.

"I think I have something in my bag." She said, gesturing to her sister.

"Listen, I aint got time for this junk. That snivy is a useless looser. This was his last chance." The boy said, totally ignoring the seriousness of the issue, "I told him if he lost again I would leave him."

Peter suddenly had a flashback, the snivy standing and allowing itself to be hit, did it loose on purpose to get away from this jerk?

They boy turned and started walking off.

"Hey, you cant just leave, your Pokemon is hurt here!" Peter shouted after him.

"I dont want him, I aint got room on my team for pipsqueaks like that." He said, "Only reason I took him is because there was nothin' else."

"And looks like he has been paying for it all this time huh?" Peter said sharply.

"Well, if you like it so much, here's his ball." They boy took the pokeball off his belt and threw it into the forest, "Have fun."

Peter felt his muscles tighten and rage pour through him, he couldnt believe someone could care so little about their Pokemon. He was about to stand up and confront the boy when the girl in the Orange coat came trotting up.

"Here..." She panted, offing Peter a small vile.

Peter stood for a few seconds watching the fat boy walking away up the bank. He was clearly unfit and was having to excerpt a lot of effort with each step. The snivy coughed which snapped Peters attention back to the injured Pokemon.

"Thanks," He nodded as he took the small vile from the girl, "Is this all you have? There is not much left here.." Peter caught himself snapping at the girl.

"I'm sorry." The girl said guiltily.

Peter gently fed the contents of the bottle to the creature. It coughed but drank what was there.

Peter rummaged about in his bag. He only had one healing spray.

"Ok little guy," Peter said, "Lets check out that eye next."

As Peters hands touched the snivys face it squirmed. It clearly lacked any sort of real energy as its stubby arms were just softly hitting Peters wrists and he was easily able to restrain it with his other hand.

He gently opened the Pokemon's eye. It was a deep red colour and along the lines of the blade cuts the eye was turning a milky white colour, moving out ether side of the scar were what looked like white veins. This eye had almost lost its deep red/brown shine which is one of the Snivy lines main characteristics. Peter withdrew his hand and the eye snapped shut again.

Peter had noticed the two girls looking on concerned around him along with the Dewott.

Peter reached into his bag again and pulled out the spray bottle.

"That Dewott is very impressive." Peter said, glancing up at the girl, "Its form is quite excellent."

"Dewott, return" Kelly said, looking down at her feet. The Pokemon disappeared into the Pokeball in a burst of energy, "I shouldnt have battled, it was obvious there was something wrong... but I thought he might be tricking us... he seemed the type.."

Peter lined up the spray nozzle with the scarring and pulled this plunger. Nothing.

"Sorry, I didnt mean to upset you," Peter said, shaking the bottle and trying again, "My father has a Sanurott, your Pokemon reminded me of him. Besides, you are right and if your Dewott had not been so skillful then things could be much worse."

Again nothing happened. Peter could hear liquid in the bottle however. Peter looked down and noticed the Pokemon was shivering more now. The sun was setting and darkness was starting to fall over the battlefield. He stood and took off his white coat and wrapped the pokemon inside.

"Here," Jade said, taking off her dragonite coat, "Please, use this as well."

"Thanks," Peter said pausing, "Can you put that on snivy whilst I try to figure out what is going on with this?" He shook the bottle again.

Jade started to wrap the Pokemon whilst Peter tried to unscrew the lid of the bottle. It was very tight and wouldn't budge.

He looked over to see the girl in the white dress walking back and gathering her things. He gave the bottle one last twist. The top sprang off, taking him by surprise, spraying the contents of the bottle onto his trousers. Quickly Peter tipped the bottle back but only a small amount remained.

"Archeus damn it!" He grumbled angrily.

He thought for a few moments, staring into space. He thought he should have stopped that kid from leaving, he should have stopped the battle before it started, he should have prepared more before he left Nuvema and taken more supplies. What kind of doctor was he anyway? A dumb clumsy one who couldn't even open a bottle and now risked this poor Pokemon... He cast his mind back to what Professor Fir had told him 'Always return the Pokemon to the Pokeball until you can get somewhere to safely treat it...'

The snivy's Pokeball... Where did it go, he wasnt even paying attention. It could be anywhere. Out of desperation he started to fumble about in his bag, tins of food and instant noodles. Clothes, a handkerchief... Peter paused, thinking...

He carefully folded the handkerchief into a long thin strip. He looked up again to see that Jade had packed the snivy into the coat with the dragonite 'hood' on its head.

"Cute.." Peter said as he kneeled back down beside the Pokemon.

He dowsed the handkerchief with the remaining liquid and applied it as a dressing to the eye, he wrapped either end of the handkerchief around the pokemon's head as a kind of make shift eyepatch.

Just then a voice behind him said, "Oran berry."

Peter turned to see Kelly looking down at him, holding out a dark purple fruit.

"Excellent!" Peter said, excitedly taking the berry from her, "Thank you!"

Kelly grinned and looked over at the Pokemon.

The snivy was starting to get restless and was shuffling in the makeshift bedding it was wrapped in. It moaned a little as Peter offered it the berry.

"Hmm, perhaps it doesn't even have the energy to eat this.. " Peter again rummaged in his bag and pulled out a pestle and mortar dish. He quickly ground the berry into a paste.

Lifting the Pokemon into his arms, he spoon fed the mixture to the Pokemon like a baby, ensuring that the small creature had eaten the lot. Almost instantly it settled back down and seemed to drift back to sleep.

By now it was almost totally dark, Peter could just about make out the silhouettes of the two girls, it looked like they were making camp. Peter thought to do the same, but was afraid to move incase of waking his patient. He manoeuvred his bag behind his back on the bank, enough for him to lean back on at least. He shut his eyes for just a moment.


	3. Chapter 3 - Accumula Arrival

Chapter 3 - Accumula Arrival

Peters eyes snapped open. It was suddenly daylight. He squinted as his eyes adapted to the light.

He noticed a small black pot was hanging from 3 sticks over a small campfire, steam was rising gently from the open top. To his right he could see Kelly drinking from a small china mug, her sister Jade was sleeping next to her in a red sleeping bag.

The snivy, still in Peters arms stirred and yawned gently, but remained fast asleep.

"There is some tea in the pot." Kelly nodded towards the campfire.

"Hey, thanks!" Peter said, realising his mouth was totally dry.

He gently set down the snivy next to his bag. He reached inside his bag and pulled out a white enamel mug. He walked over the the campfire and dipped the mug into the hot liquid filling the cup.

He cradled his hands around the mug and took a short sip of the tea. It was exceptionally hot and burned his top lip a little. Peter nonchalantly swilled the liquid from side to side in his mouth trying to avoid attention.

"Be careful," Kelly snorted, "Its hot." She couldn't help cracking a smile.

"Thanks." Peter said dryly after managing to swallow as Kelly looked down and laughed.

Peter stepped back over to the snivy, he crouched down next to the Pokemon still wrapped in the orange dragonite coat. He examined the dressing he had fashioned yesterday, everything looked ok but he was mindful they needed to get to a Pokemon Centre as quickly as possible.

"How is it?" Kelly asked over Peters shoulder.

"HE, is fine for now." Peter said, "But I should get him to a Pokemon Centre asap."

Peter glanced back at Kelly who was walking over to them. She tiled her head at the site of the small Pokemon wrapped in the coat.

"Looks so cute in there." She said, "I cant believe that jerk could treat him like that."

"Makes me wonder if it wanted to loose to get away from him.." Peter thought out loud.

"Excuse me?" Kelly questioned.

"The guy said, if it lost again he would leave it..." Peter remembered back, "Perhaps thats what this snivy wanted?"

"Maybe.." Kelly frowned. She reached down and neatened out the coat around the snivy's body and head.

"SNIVY!" It awoke with a start, glancing around. Realising it couldn't see out of one side he threw his arms to his face and tried to push the bandage off.

"Hey hey, no!" Kelly said softly, "You need that, you're safe now, you're with us its ok."

The snivy stopped and turned its head in order to look at Kelly clearly.

"Vy?" It said before settling back down, "Snivy."

Kelly again tucked in the make shift blanket.

Peter sipped again from his cup, the liquid was now luke warm. He crouched down next to Kelly, "here snivy." he said, offering the cup to the Pokemons mouth.

He tipped it gently and watched as the Pokemon finished the rest of the drink.

"Vy-Snivy." the creature said satisfied, closing its eyes once more.

"There is a Pokemon Centre in Accumula Town." Jade said in the background.

The two glanced round to see Jade tapping on a Pokegear, "And its on the way to Striaton.. We should get going.."

"Great, um ... guy..." Kelly said looking back to Peter, "Umm, I guess we never exchanged names huh?"

Peter blushed, he had been caught up in the drama of he moment.

"Peter," He said extending his hand, "Peter Green, I'm a Pokemon Doctor from Nuvema Town."

"Peter, I'm Kelly, this is Jade my little sister." Kelly gestured over to Jade who was packing their things into two backpacks. She paused and waved politely, "We are on our way to Striaton City to challenge the gym there."

"Nice to meet you both... and thanks,"Peter paused, "Really, thanks for your help."

"Dont get all gushy." Kelly said, scratching the back of her head, "Now gather your stuff... Pete, lets get you and that snivy to the Pokemon centre."

The trio packed their things into their bags and scaled the bank until they could see the path stretching out into the distance. Peter glanced down at the snivy in his arms, it was snoring lightly. Poor little guy must have been totally exhausted, Peter thought.

The trio walked until the sun was midway across the sky, the day was very hot but a cool wind blew every so often which ruffled the dark green leaves of the trees surrounding the path. Occasionally the group encountered other travellers on the road, which lead Jade to speculate where the boy from before had gone..

"We should report him when we get to Accumula," Jane said matter of factly, "He is obviously a bully who doesnt deserve to be a Pokemon trainer."

"I sure wasnt impressed with the way he treated snivy." Peter said, "But we dont know how he handled his other Pokemon..."

"Urgh," Kelly said glancing over at Peter, "It sickens me to think he has other Pokemon he treats like that."

"I said we dont know," Peter corrected, "But, from what I saw and the evidence I'm carrying, Im concerned about his other Pokemon for sure."

"We shouldnt have let him leave so easily." Jade said.

The three came across a clearing. On either side were huge meadows stretching off into the distance. The grass here was tall and lush. Peter could see a small hill with a clump of trees at the top and grass had be worn down into a path in its direction.

"Urgh, I could do with a break."Jade complained and started to make her way down the path.

The other two followed her through the channel of grass. Peter could see a number of deerling jumping in and out of the grass along side them. Jade giggled and jumped into the grass to play with them.

Kelly and Peter sat on a log at the top of the hill, under the shade of some huge old trees. Peter could see red fruits growing up high on the branches.

"I thought she said she was tired?" Peter said, putting snivy down.

"Ha," Kelly retorted, "She loves deerling, she probably forgot the moment she saw them."

The two chuckled as they watched Jade running and falling along with the deerling diving in and out of the grass being visible for only a second before being obscured again.

Kelly stepped over to a clump of large leaved light green coloured plants. She took her flask and gently tipped each leaf so the tip was over the spout. Water ran from the centre of the plant out across the leaf and into the flask.

"What do you make of those?" Peter asked, pointing up to the top of the tree.

Kelly glanced upwards, noticing some large apple like fruits.

"I like your thinking.. " She paused, "And I know just the Pokemon who can help us get them!"

She handed Peter her flask and grabbed a Pokeball from her bag, "Pidove, I need your help!"

The Pidgeon pokemon appeared in a flash of light from the Pokeball and gracefully flapping its wings landed on the ground in front of Kelly. It cocked its head looking at her for a moment, before pecking at the ground.

"Pidove, we need your help to gather some fruit high in the tree," Kelly pointed, "Up there, pidove can you fly up and see if you can bring some down?"

The pokemon looked quizzically at Kelly for a moment before jumping up and flapping its grey wings, taking flight.

It flew up into the branches of the tree and called "dove-dove!"

There was a rustling noise from up in the branches for a few moments. Kelly used her hand to shade her eyes from the sun watching pidove from below. At that moment pidove burst from the branches and landed proudly in front of them with a wad of leaves and twigs in its beak. It dropped them at Kellys feet proudly exclaiming "Pidove!"

Peter chuckled to himself but quickly stopped as Kelly shot him an evil glance.

"No pidove, the fruit," Kelly said, making the shape with her hands, "do you think you can try again?"

Peter watched on as again pidove flew up high and rummaged in the tree for a while bringing back just some twigs and leaves.

Just then one of the apple like fruits came falling from the tree, followed by another and another. The fruits came raining down on the two, striking Kelly and Peter on the head and shoulders.

An angry sewaddle appeared on a long thread suspended from a high branch. Peter could make out at least 3 more up above.

"I think we upset them.." Kelly said picking up some of the fallen fruits.

Peter did the same stacking some on to snivy who woke up as Peter piled on a few of the apples.

The group sprinted from the copse as Sewaddle launched an attack of razor leaf narrowly missing. Sewaddle watched them run off and made a satisfied grunt before reeling itself back to the high branch where its colleagues waited.

Jade, seeing the commotion caught up with them, "What was that?!" She asked, confused as to why they were leaving already.

"I think we upset a nest of sewaddle.." Kelly said, "Pidove was trying to grab us some of these." She offered an apple to Jade.

"Nice!" Jade said, looking back towards the tree she shouted, "Sorry for the trouble!"

Once they got back to the path the group stopped and sat on the edge. Peter checked on snivy who seemed to be complaining about the commotion. Peter took off the 4 apples he managed to gather and offered one to the small green Pokemon. It wriggled its stubby arms free of its blankets and took the fruit. It looked at Peter quizzically for a few moments then cautiously took a nibble of the apple.

"Viii!" It exclaimed as it wriggled out of the makeshift blankets and carefully slid down off of Peters lap onto the grass. Kelly, Jade and Peter watched in amazement and the pokemon sat down and started to eat.

"Excellent," Peter said watching, "you need to regain your strength."

Pidove landed on Kellys backpack. Kelly held out one of the apples and it pecked it happily as the humans also tucked in.

After they were finished eating Peter picked up snivy and tried to wrap him back in the coats, but the snivy wriggled free each time.

"I guess he just wants some air now?" Kelly suggested.

"Is that right, snivy?" Peter asked, holding the Pokemon out in front of him.

"Vi, snivy!" The Pokemon spoke back.

Peter paused for a moment examining the handkerchief eye patch with his eyes, checking and making sure it was still tight. Snivy had seemed to almost forget about it already.

"OK then, but I think I should still carry you, you are not strong enough to walk all the way, yet." Peter continued.

"Snivy."

Peter pushed his white coat into his bag after giving Jade back her dragonite coat. He picked up snivy and the three set off again towards Accumula town.

Just as the sun was setting the trio crested a rise which revealed Accumula town spread out before them. Peter glanced down at the Pokemon in his arms, he was asleep again.

"We're here buddy," He said softly, "You're gonna be fine now."

The snivy stirred slightly and muttered "sniii" in its sleep.

The three headed down the hill as Jade consulted her Pokegear, "It should be this way!" She said pointing down the street, "Pokemon Centre should be just around... here." She stopped pointing not even looking up from her device.

Right before them stood the Accumula town Pokemon Centre. As they walked through the automatic doors the familiar 5 note tone played over the tannoy. The reception was deserted apart from Nurse Joy waiting at the main counter.

"Welcome to the Accumula Town Pokemon Centre!" She said happily, "Would you ..." She stopped mid sentence as she saw the injured snivy in Peters arms, "What have you done to that snivy?!" She asked angrily.

"Well, we hel..." Peter was cut off as nurse Joy snatched the Pokemon from his arms.

"How could you be so irresponsible!" She exclaimed, pressing a button on the wall.

A door opened and Audino appeared with a stretcher on wheels.

"Now you will have to wait out here young man," She said, laying the Pokemon gently on the stretcher "I'll come and talk to you after we take care of this poor Pokemon." She glared at Peter as she left the reception with Audino.

Peter was left speechless. In fact he was hoping to complete snivy's treatment himself.

"Its okay, she doesnt know what happened." Kelly said, putting her hand on Peters shoulder.

"Yeah dont worry, we will explain to her." Jade said confidently.

"Thanks guys." Peter said, taking a seat in the reception area.

About an hour passed before nurse Joy emerged again from the door. She glared at Peter and she took her place again behind the counter.

"We have done all we could," She said, "but the injury is quite severe. You should have gotten here much sooner."

"Can I see snivy, please?" Peter questioned standing up, "Im a Pokem..."

"You will have to wait." She said, "We have done what we can, we will let you know when you can go in there."

"But I'm a Pokemo.." Peter was again interrupted.

"And you two, sorry for the wait," Nurse Joy said directing her attention to Jade and Kelly, "Would you like me to heal your Pokemon?"

"Thanks," Kelly said, recovering her Pokeballs from her bag.

She produced 6 Pokeballs, Peter was intrigued to see what other Pokemon lurked inside.

Nurse Joy cheerfully took the Pokeballs from the counter and slotted them into openings on a drawer which protruded from the wall. It slid backwards into a recess in the wall.

"It will take just a few minutes." Joy said.

"Listen, Nurse Joy," Peter said approaching the counter once more. Nurse Joy scowled at him. "Nurse Joy, my name is Peter Green, Im a Pokemon Doctor from Nuvema town. I found this snivy being abused and then abandoned by his trainer. I brought him here for your help." Peter rummaged in his bag and produced his Pokedex, he handed it to Nurse Joy.

Joy took the device and scanned the credentials. Pausing she looked up as if checking a passport.

"Oh, I see... " She said, "Then this is not your Pokemon?"

"No," Peter said, "Well, I guess now he is no ones Pokemon since his trainer abandoned him and threw away his Pokeball."

"Oh, I see.." Joy said, handing the Pokedex back to Peter, "Thats terrible."

"He has us now!" Jade said, from the background. Kelly elbowed her arm,

"Us?"

"Joy, may I see snivy, is there anything I can do to help?" Peter pleaded.

"Since you are a Doctor," Nurse Joy turned, "Audino, please show him to his.. ahem... to the snivy this young gentleman brought in."

"Audino!" Audino said as it bowed in acknowledgement. The large pink Pokemon beckoned to Peter as it turned and walked through the door.

Peter nodded to nurse Joy as he turned to follow Audino. As he neared the door he stopped and smiled politely at Kelly and Jade who nodded back at him.

Peter followed the Audino through the door which glided closed behind them. In front of them was a short corridor, on either side of which were 3 wooden doors. Alongside each door was a small frosted glass window with 3 clear stripes running horizontally across. As the pair walked past the first window Peter could see a Darmanitan in Zen mode sat on a white sheet. The second window contained an Oshawott with a sticking plaster on its head bouncing a small rubber ball up against the foot of the bed. It looked so delighted as it rebounded into its paw each time.

"Audinooo.." Peter snapped his gaze away from the sea otter Pokemon in the room to see Audino had stopped by the third door on the left. It gestured to the door.

Peter took the door knob and turned it slowly.

"Thanks Audino." Peter bowed as he carefully opened the door.

The Pokemon nodded and walked back towards the entrance door. As Peter stepped into the room he heard the door glide shut and a soft click as it located back into its door frame.

The room was dark, but Peter could just make out the shape of the snivy snugly tucked into the white blankets. Alongside the bed was a small table with a lamp, and a wooden chair.

Peter approached the bed and noticed that snivy was still wearing a bandage over his eye although this looked much more comfortable than the make shift handkerchief eye patch Peter had fashioned. As Peter stood examining the bandage he could just make out the sound of the snivy breathing softly.

He stepped towards the foot of the bed and picked up the clipboard which hung there. His eye strained in the dark as he read the chart. Vitals were good, but the eye would take time and further treatment to begin to heal.

'Nurse Joy was right,' he thought, 'there is nothing more I can do right now.'

He carefully hung the chart back on the hook. Suddenly the door handle turned and the familiar face of Nurse Joy appeared.

"Your friends have turned in for the night," She said, "There are rooms upstairs, I expect you are tired.."

"Thanks," Peter whispered so as not to disturb the sleeping creature. He stepped to the door, "Umm, anywhere I can get a hot drink before I turn in for the night?"

Nurse Joy smiled, "Of course, right down there." She pointed to the end of the corridor.

Peter thanked Joy as she turned and walked back to the exit. Peter stepped back into the corridor and closed the door to the room. He looked down to the far end of the corridor. His eyes took a moment to adjust after the dimness of the bedroom. He noticed a tall potted plant, next to which stood a vending machine with a number of buttons. He walked over to the machine and pressed 'Hot Chocolate.'

The machine whirred to life and a plastic cup dropped into a receptacle in the bottom of the machine. A hot brown liquid squirted into the cup. Peter waited a few moments to ensure the machine had completed the process before carefully removing the cup from its housing and taking a sip. He enjoyed the feeling of the warm liquid travelling into his stomach. He turned and walked towards the exit. As he passed the snivy's room he glanced through the glass.

The Pokemon was wriggling and squirming in the bed now. Occasionally Peter could see its stubby legs kicking out underneath the bed sheet. Peter frowned and opened the door. The snivy was murmuring in its sleep, it certainly didn't seem as content as before. Peter guessed maybe he was having a dream, or a nightmare. He felt he couldn't leave him by himself - what if it woke up and needed comforting?' he thought. He placed his drink down on the table beside the bed and pulled the wooden chair close. He sat down,

"Its ok buddy," Peter said gently, "You're safe."

The Pokemon seemed to respond to his voice, it emitted a relaxed sigh before snuggling back into the sheets.

Peter grinned and took another sip of his hot chocolate. Satisfied the snivy was once again peaceful he put down his cup and closed his eyes just for a moment.


	4. Chapter 4 - A New Companion

Chapter 4 - A new companion

Peters eyes snapped open. It was light in the room. His head was hanging backwards and his neck ached terribly. He forced his neck muscles to cooperate and pulled his head up to look around the room.

He was surprised to see the snivy standing on the bed looking at him. Snivy's face lit up when he saw Peter was awake,

"Vi, Snivy!" It shouted excitedly as it jumped off the bed and onto Peters lap.

"Hey," Peter said surprised, "You seem to be feeling much better!"

"Snivy." The Pokemon said proudly looking up at him.

Peter studied the small Pokemon's markings, the top of its head was a dark green, its chin and belly was a creamy brown. Around its neck its skin formed a yellow collar which started a yellow stripe down the centre of its back and tail, it formed into a distinctive "S" shape just before the huge leaf on the end of its tail.

"I'm so glad to hear it!" Peter said, patting snivy on the head.

He proceeded to examine the Pokemon, taking a mental note of its vital signs.

"Really good." Peter thought out loud, "Apart from that eye of yours, I'd say you were back to full strength!"

The snivy looked up and him and used its vines to hop back onto the bed. Peter stood up and leaned forwards, the snivy's tail flickered as Peters hand made contact with its head. Peter noticed just how small this snivy was when he thought about other snivy's that he had seen. It could have only weighed about 5 kgs at the most, Peter guessed. He estimated this was a very young and low level specimen. The fact that it was so playful also seemed to betray its young age. Snivy's usually end up developing a very superior, almost arrogant attitude as they grow up.

Peter stood back up straight and rubbed his neck. At that moment nurse Joy opened the door.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, " I didnt expect to see you here!" She glanced over at the snivy, "He looks so well!"

"Yeah," Peter blushed, "Yes, its an amazing recovery, huh!?"

Peter noticed Nurse Joy was carrying a small metal tray with some scissors and a fresh bandage. She placed the tray down on the bed.

"I was about to change the dressing." She commented, picking up the scissors from the tray.

Peter stepped back, to make room for Nurse Joy to step closer to the bed. The snivy stood patiently as she gently and expertly cut the old bandage and very slowly and deliberately peeled it off layer by layer.

"Oh." She said bluntly.

Peter stepped forwards to look over her shoulder, "May I take a look?" He asked.

Joy stepped to one side and Peter crouched down to see.

The Pokemon's skin around its head was a slightly lighter green where the bandage had been sitting, Peter traced the line across the Pokemons head to its eye. The eye itself was a very light brown around the edge, the redness had gone but the centre of the eye was a milky white colour. Peter made a sudden hand movement next to the Pokemon but it didnt react at all.

Nurse Joy looked down at her feet, "It was just too late," She said, "We tried to regenerate but, it was just damaged for too long before you got here."

Peter frowned, thinking of the time spent collecting fruit and strolling along the path, he could have hurried more, not taken any break. He should have put the priority of his patient first. He felt responsible.

Nurse Joy inspected the Pokemons other eye, it was a light brown at the edge and leading to the centre got progressively darker until it was a deep chestnut, the pupil was very large and black. It had a deep shine.

She ran few tests, making some fast hand movements which made the snivy flinch.

It was obvious to them both that this eye was fine.

Peter watched as nurse Joy expertly applied the new bandage, covering the injury.

By now snivy seemed to be frustrated at being still for so long and quickly after nurse Joy finished her work it walked up and down the bed, lifting its short stubby legs and bouncing off its backside every so often back into the air, onto its feet, exclaiming "Vi!" each time it did so. Peter was amazed at how the injury didn't seem to be bothering the creature too much, its nature was so good.

Nurse Joy smiled and turned to leave. Peter turned to follow her,

"See you in a little while." He said to snivy as he stepped towards the door.

"Vi - Vi - Vi.." Peter turned around to see the snivy standing on the bed arms outstretched toward him.

"Seriously, I will be right back - I promise." Peter said as reassuringly as he could.

He stepped out of the door and into the corridor with nurse Joy. He followed her through the door at the end to the main reception area.

"Thats so nice how you stayed with him." Nurse Joy said, "Despite what his previous trainer did, he seems to have really bonded with you... and you with him!"

"I have grown attached to him." Peter said, but still felt a prang of guilt.

Peter looked across the room, a few trainers had started to filter in. a little girl with a cottonee, an old lady with a lillipup and a middle aged man with a Gothitelle were waiting on a row of seats along the left side of the entrance. On the other side next to the reception desk Peter noticed his bag. He bent down, picked it up and rummaged inside. He didnt notice anything missing. He grabbed his washbag and went to freshen up.

He scaled the stairs on the far side of the hall and turned right into the washrooms.

After showering and pulling on some fresh clothes he brushed his teeth, studying his face in the mirror as he leaned over the basin. He noticed a little stubble on his cheeks, accumulated after a few days of being on the road. 'Not too bad' he thought lazily as he washed his mouth and toothbrush.

He carefully packed his things into his washbag and zipped it up. He paused once more checking his white shirt collar was aligned properly before stepping back out through the door.

"Oh that just so adorable!" Peter heard a familiar voice exclaim.

Peter began his decent of the stairs looking over the railing to see Jade and Kelly standing in the reception. In front of them was an Oshawott rolling a small orange ball along the floor. Peter followed the object as it rolled up to a snivy. Peter could recognise him easily as his patient due to the squiggle on its tail, but something else was different. Instead of the bandages snivy now wore a black eye patch over its left eye.

Peter watched as a girl in a multi-layered burgandy dress joined Kelly and Jade. A growlithe ran between her legs and joined in the game with oshawott and snivy.

"Im sorry," She said to Kelly, "He just loves to play!"

Snivy sat on his bottom with his stubby legs splayed out directly in front of him. Using both of his short arms he picked up the ball and gently bounced it to growlithe. Growlithe excitedly caught the ball in its mouth, it dropped it, sat down across from the other two and used its paw to roll it to oshawott. Over the next few turns the game intensified and became more competitive, the pokemon all showing their fighting spirit. They were no longer taking it in turns but randomly flinging the ball at each other. Growlithe pinged the ball to oshawott, he bounced it back to growlithe, growlithe caught the ball and quickly turned and spat the ball towards snivy. Snivy tracked the ball for a few moments until it suddenly looked confused and started to glance around. The ball had rolled past snivy's left side and continued on.

Peter frowned, and started to walk over to the group. Around him other Pokemon and trainers were filing into the Pokemon centre as the sun rose higher outside.

The girl in the burgandy dress skipped past the pokemon holding on to her large matching burgandy hat, her red hair waved out behind her as she stooped down and stopped the ball rolling any further.

"Here!" She called to snivy.

The Pokemon looked around confused for a second, before spinning on its heel and using its right side to see the girl clearly.

"Snivy!" It said happily and ran towards her. Using its vines it took the ball from the girl and in one swift movement passed the ball back to oshawott. Oshawott clapped as the ball landed back in front of it.

"What a difference." Remarked Kelly, noticing Peter alongside them.

"Yeah, you wouldnt think thats the same guy!" Peter said watching the creature closely as it ran back to the others. They seemed to stop and converse with one another for a while.

"And how was your night?" She asked.

"Ha," Peter paused and tilted his head back, his neck still ached slightly, "I fell asleep watching over snivy."

"Oh?" Kelly asked, "You seem to have gotten pretty attached to the little guy!"

"He was having some kind of nightmare, I couldnt just leave him alone." Peter said.

"Peter, Peter Green?" Came nurse Joy's voice from the reception desk.

"Yes!" Peter answered and jogged over to her.

"Hi," She said, "I just wanted to let you know I notified the hospital in Opelucid city that you were here caring for a patient and may be delayed."

"Oh, hey thanks, I didnt even think of that." Peter said bowing his head.

"They asked me to pass these on to you," She handed Peter a tray with 5 Pokeballs, "There is also an Audino waiting for you at Opelucid - hence the 5." She gestured at the tray.

Peter nodded. It was normal for doctors and nurses to be assigned Audino the healing Pokemon to help them with their duties.

Peter took each Pokeball and tucked them into holders on the back of his belt. As he picked up the last ball he fumbled it clumsily and it sprang from his hand landing on the floor of the reception with a clatter.

Snivy looked up from its conversation with the other pokemon, seeing Peter drop the Pokeball he turned and ran and full steam towards Peter. Peter leaned down to pick up the dropped Pokeball. Just as his hand was about to touch it snivy slammed into the pokeball and disappeared into it in a stream of light. The ball snapped shut and clicked closed.

Shocked Peter reacted by pulling back his hand and taking a step back.

The whole entranceway was in silence. Both oshawott and growlithe sat stunned.

"I guess snivy wants to go with you." Kelly said, having walked up behind Peter, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Peter grinned. Stooping back down he picked up the ball and threw it, in another jet of light snivy appeared and landed gracefully on the floor. It stepped forwards smiling and looked up at Peter.

"Vi- Snivy!" It said cheerfully.

Peter crouched down and hugged the snivy, who did the same.

"Im not sure what youre letting yourself in for buddy." Peter laughed happily, ' But its going to be a lot of fun finding out!"

Jade scurried up next to Kelly, "But how, if snivy belonged to that awful guy?"

"Maybe he already removed him from his dex and updated his team?" Kelly surmised.

Peter stood up, keeping snivy in his arms. The snivy looked at Jade and Kelly and smiled at them.

The girl in burgandy walked up to the trio, oshawott and growlithe in tow.

"Hey!" She said looking at Peter, "Youre snivy is the cutest!"

"Thank-" Peter was cut off.

"Vi-Snivy." Snivy said proudly.

"Say, would you guys like to have a battle?" She asked, "I would love to see what he can do!"

"I dont know," Said Peter, "We havent even trained together."

"First time for everything!" Kelly said excitedly.

"I'm not sure how Snivy would feel about battling," Peter said, "I mean he did get hurt last time and..."

"Vi."Snivy said, looking up at him and clenching his fist in a "Lets do it!" pose.

"You really wanna battle?" Peter said, concerned.

Snivy nodded determinedly.

"Vi Snivy, sniiiiivy snivy!" Peter had no idea what he was saying but it sounded confident.

"So great!" The girl said, "There is a training ground right outside!" She paused, "I'm India by the way!" She looked back and gave a peace sign.

"I'm Kelly, and this is my sister Jade!" Kelly said bowing.

"I'm Peter, I'm a Pokemon Doctor." Peter bowed also.

"Great to meet you all," India said, "Shall we battle?"

The trio watched as she scurried to the exit followed by oshawott and growlithe. Peter thanked nurse Joy for everything she had done and followed the others outside.

They turned right and then right again around to the back of the building. As they turned the final corner Peter could see that the ground opened up into a large park. Right in the middle was a training ground surrounded by a mesh fence.

"All right!" India said, scurrying quickly to the training court.

The trio walked steadily behind her.

"Snivy, remember this is our first battle," He said looking down at the creature, "So lets just try to have fun, okay?"

"Sniiiivy!" The snivy seemed to growl and it looked up at him and clenched its fist again.

They set up on the battleground, Peter and snivy at one side, India at the other. In the middle on the sideline Kelly stood, Jade sat on a small bench to her left.

Peter looked across the battlefield at his opponent. On her left was growlithe, on her right side was oshawott. The sensible choice is growlithe he thought.

Peter reached into his pocket and pulled out his Pokedex. It had registered snivy as his Pokemon. He tapped on it to see what moves Snivy knew already.

Tackle.

He pressed the button again but it didnt move.

"Snivy, do you know anything else other than tackle?" Peter asked his Pokemon.

"Vi." Snivy looked down disappointedly.

Peter put snivy down and crouched in front of him, looking him in the face.

"Hey, dont feel bad, lets show them what we can do huh?" Peter smiled.

Snivy smiled back and walked forward to take his place on the battlefield.

Peter couldnt help but feel nervous. He was very inexperienced as a trainer and he was going up against someone who seemed a keen battler. It was also a challenge that snivy only knew tackle - again Peter's concern spiked as he realised how small snivy looked out on the battlefield.

"OK." India said, "Growlithe, lets do our best!"

The Orange and black stripped Pokemon jumped forward onto the battlefield excitedly, its puffy white maine and tail billowed gently in the light breeze.

"Trainers!" Kelly called, "This is a 1 on 1 Pokemon battle. No substitutions. I will decide when the battle is over - are we clear?"

Peter and India responded with their confirmations.

"Then, begin the battle!" She said dropping her arm to her side.

Peter clenched his fists and widened his stance.

"Alright Sniv..." He began.

"Growlithe, use Ember!" India called.

"Snivy, dodge it!" Peter called back.

Growlithe sucked air into its lungs and blew out a stream of hot embers at snivy. Snivy jumped up and landed in front and to the left of the dog like Pokemon, dodging the attack.

"Great now Snivy, use tackle!" Peter commanded.

Snivy grunted as he dug his heels into the ground and sprinted towards growlithe. Growlithe had just finished its ember attack and was still facing straight ahead. It turned just in time for snivy to slam its shoulder into its body. It staggered backwards as snivy jumped back, glancing its head to the left in order to maintain sight of the other Pokemon with its good eye.

The two Pokemon again faced each other down.

"Growlithe, you okay?" India called.

Growlithe glanced back over its shoulder and grunted, nodding.

"Then use roar now!" She called.

Growlithe galloped forwards and emitted a mighty roar from deep within its body. Snivy, took two steps backwards and nervously glanced towards Peter.

"Oh man, Snivy looks like he is really intimidated." Jade said, before calling, "Come on Snivy!"

"Snivy, its all show!" Peter called, "Get in close and use tackle again!"

Snivy gritted his teeth and again sped towards his target.

"Growlithe," India called, "Dodge it and use bite!"

Snivy was focussed in on the Pokemon in front of him. He was running at full speed now. He dropped his shoulder and prepared for the contact, but he just kept on running.

Growlithe side stepped the attack and bit down on the snivy's tail, stopping it in its tracks.

"Oh no." Peter said, seeing the pain on Snivy's face, 'What was I thinking to let him battle after he just recovered..'

"Now growlithe," India called, "Throw snivy to the ground!"

Growlithe lifted its head and tossed snivy up into the air. The small snake Pokemon grunted heavily as it hit the ground hard.

Growlithe looked around proudly.

"Snivy, can you go on?" Peter called. He watched as his Snivy climbed back to its feet. The Pokemon turned back to him and nodded.

"Growlithe, lets finish him off with ember!" India called excitedly, knowing that Snivy was almost finished, the oshawott at her side cheered excitedly, seemingly repeating her command in its own tongue.

"Snivy, dodge and use..." Peter stopped in his tracks as Snivy jumped out of the way of the attack, propelling itself high into the air with its vines. On its decent, snivy lashed out with the whip like tentacles from its neck, slapping the face and body of the dog like pokemon. It grunted as it was pummled left and right before collapsing to the ground.

Snivy landed softly a few metres away, before dropping to one knee and struggling back up again.

"Was that Vine Whip?" Kelly said under her breath. She watched closely for motion from the other Pokemon.

Peter glanced over to see Jade standing and cheering. He looked back to see Snivy still stood watching his opponent. Still no movement.

"Growlithe is unable to battle!" Kelly exclaimed, "Snivy and Peter are the winners!"

Peter rushed towards his Pokemon and was thrilled as Snivy turned and ran towards him also.

"Great job buddy!" Peter said beaming, "That was incredible work! You learned vine whip huh?!"

"Vi." Snivy said proudly as Peter held the Pokemon up in front of him.

"Growlithe, oh no!" India said and ran out towards her Pokemon, "Growlithe, return." She said disappointedly, watching as the pokemon disappeared into the Pokeball in a flash of light.

Peter set Snivy down and examined him. A few bruises but nothing serious. He sighed relieved.

India trotted over to them, oshawott in tow.

"What a great first battle!" She said, " Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Peter shook her hand.

"That snivy is a real winner," She said, "You can tell you guys have a great bond already!"

Peter smiled and looked down at Snivy in his arms, who nodded at him.

"Guys, great battle!" Kelly shouted, "It was good to finally see what you could do." She said, talking directly to Snivy now.

"Vi." Snivy grinned at her and folded its arms.

As the group walked back to the Pokemon centre Peter felt so proud of his Pokemon, after all it had been through it still wanted to battle for him - and win - to show him what he could do. Even with its disadvantage, he was able to defeat an experienced opponent - although he knew India was playing very fair to them and didnt even try to exploit their blind side.

After bribing Snivy back into the Pokeball with the promise of ice cream, the group handed their Pokeballs to Nurse Joy to be healed. After a few moments Joy handed back their pokemon and wished them a safe journey.

"Thanks for the battle," India said as they approached the door, "Hope to see you around again for a rematch!" She smiled and put her hand on his chest. Leaning in as if to kiss him she turned and strolled off down the street.

Peter turned and found Kelly and Jade shaking their heads.

"What?" Peter said.

The girls remained silent and turned to walk the opposite direction,

"Come on." Jade said dryly, "We need to get some supplies."

Peter jogged after them as they crossed the road. Peter stopped allowing a car to pass before continuing on.

In front of him was a large brick building with large glass windows. Peter could see all manner of things on display as well as large brightly coloured signs advertising special offers and discounts.

He stepped through the large automatic doors to see Kelly and Jade disappear down an isle marked "Food." He followed them and was greeted with a huge wall of Pokemon Food products. He thought for a moment putting down his bag and rummaging through it to find an old black A5 size notebook. Its cover was weathered and the paper was yellow around the edges from age. His handwritten notes from College, as well as his fathers notebook from his journey.

He opened the book and thumbed through the handwritten pages and diagrams.

"Ah, here we are." He thought out loud to himself.

He rested his finger on the page and slowly read the text. He ran through details of Grass Type Pokemon and their eating habits in the wild as well as nutrients that were important to their health and growth.

Looking up he ran his eyes along the shelf before spotting a white cylindrical container with a green lid. He picked it off the shelf and compared the ingredients in the notebook. Satisfied he gathered 2 more of the containers and continued on.

He got to the end of the isle and noticed that Jade had gone to the right into a section marked 'Pokemon Clothing' whilst Kelly had turned left to a section full of various potions and supplements. Peter elected to follow Kelly as he needed to stock up on potions and vital herbs for medicine. He wasnt going to get caught off guard again without the right supplies he thought.

After about 10 minutes Peter had so much stuff that he could no longer fit any more in his arms. He staggered to the cashier and his bundle of things exploded from his arms onto the counter. The shopkeeper looked up at him with one eyebrow raised. Peter glanced to one side to see Kelly once again shaking her head at him. Peter noticed Kelly had a wire basket full of items - Peter frowned, he must have missed them coming in.

The shopkeeper totalled up the items and Peter paid the bill, thanking the guy he packed each item carefully into his bag whilst stepping to one side to allow Kelly to do the same.

Once the pair had stowed all their gear they headed to the exit via the clothing section to pick up Jade.

They found her looking at a small dress for a Pokemon. It was a yellow tu-tu with a headband attached with Pikachu ears.

"So cute!" She said, offering it to Kelly.

Kelly simply shook her head and walked on past her to the exit. Peter smiled politely and did the same.

"You guys are no fun." She complained and the put back the dress and followed them to the door.

It glided open and they stepped out into the sunshine once again.

"So in order to head for Striaton, we should head towards route 2." Said Jade, checking her Pokegear.

At that moment Peter felt his belt vibrating and with a flash of red light Snivy appeared on the pavement before him.

"Snivy?" He questioned, putting his hands on his hips and tapping his foot.

"Oh, riiight," Peter recalled, "Anyone for some lunch?"

"Ice cream!" Kelly said snapping her fingers as she remembered the deal with Snivy.

"Oh yay!" Jade said, clasping her hands together in front of her before once again opening her Pokegear and guiding them to the nearest restaurant.

"This one has excellent reviews," She said before looking down at Snivy, "And the best ice cream in town!"

Snivy smiled widely and jumped with excitement.

The group funnelled in and took a booth table by the window overlooking the street. After a few minutes deliberating they placed their orders which were delivered promptly.

Snivy beamed as a large chocolate ice cream sundae was delivered in front of him. The Pokemon picked up the spoon from the table and stopped for a second, looking thankfully at Peter and the others. They didn't notice him as they were busy talking together. He tucked in happily.

During lunch Jade read out some interesting facts about Striaton City. Apparently it was great for shopping, had an even better restaurant than this one and some beautiful gardens.

Snivy burped lightly as he completed the sundae and leaned back in the seat. He rubbed his full belly - he had really eaten too much but he had never experienced anything so delicious before. Peter looked over to see his snivy covered in melted vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

"He looks stuffed!" Laughed Kelly as she grabbed her camera and took a snap.

Jade reached over to the centre of the table and grabbed a napkin. She turned in her seat to face snivy who was next to her and started to clean him up.

"Thanks." Peter said, climbing to his feet and reviewing the bill.

"Vi!" Snivy seemed to repeat.

"You're both welcome!" Jade said grinning looking at the Pokemon.

Peter laid down some money to cover the bill and the group left. Stepping outside once again Jade consulted her Pokegear which pointed them north to route 2. The three started to set off when Peter noticed snivy was missing. He turned to see the restaurant doors slide open and snivy waddle slowly through. Peter could see the Pokemon had clearly eaten far too much and he was having difficulty in keeping up with them.

"Sorry buddy!" Peter said rushing back and picking up snivy.

"Snii." Snivy grumbled as he was hoisted into Peters arms. Snivy looked around and yawned as Peter caught up with Kelly and Jade.

The group came to the city limit, pavement turned to gravel path. High rises and buildings turned to tress and hedgerow once again.

As the sun began to set they set up camp for the night. It was still so warm they all elected to sleep under the stars.

Peter pulled his sleeping bag from his stuffed leather shoulder bag. He placed it on the bank next to Kelly and Jade, making sure to leave a discreet distance between them. Jade had already made a small campfire and was boiling up some water for some instant noodles. She tipped an amount into each bowl, leaving enough for a cup of tea each and stirred the noodles with a set of blue chopsticks which had a relief of Lapras carved into the tops.

She handed around the food. Peter thanked her, remembering snivy's food also. He took some from the jar and offered it to him in a spare bowl he had in his bag.

Snivy thanked Peter with a "Snivy!" before he sat down and delicately took each nugget of food and crunched it in his mouth. He seemed to enjoy the taste Peter thought before tucking into his own meal.

Peter looked over to notice Kelly was gone. Although he could hear some rustling from the hedge behind and crunching noises.

Seeing Peter looking around Jade said through a mouthful of noodles, "She is feeding her Pokemon as well."

Peter looked around excitedly, keen to know what Kelly had in her team. Stuffing a wad of noodles in his mouth he got up hurriedly, tripping over Kelly's sleeping bag and dropping the remaining noodles from his bowl onto Jade.

"Hey, my coat!" Whined Jade as she wiped the noodles from her sleeve. She looked up and scowled at Peter. Peter winced and stepped back,

"Im so so sorry." He begged.

"Whats going on here?" Kelly asked returning to the campsite, Peter noticed she was holding three Pokeballs in each hand.

"I umm, I wanted to see what Pokemon you had on your team so I got up and..." Peter began as if he was a child explaining a crime to his mother,

"And he threw his food all over my coat!" Jade finished, still scowling at him.

Kelly looked at her, then at her sleeve, "Oh its not that bad." She said, grabbing a towel and wetting it with her water bottle. She dabbed the stain until it was almost gone, "See?"

"Be more careful." Jade warned Peter sternly.

Peter nodded and apologised again bowing. Jade started to giggle, "Dont be so stupid!"

"You're not mad then?" Peter said confused.

"I was playing with you," She said, "You're so serious."

"Sorry." Peter said again.

Jade laughed again. By this time Snivy had also finished his food and had come over to join them. Kelly petted him as she climbed into her sleeping bag alongside Jade.

Peter returned to his space and climbed into his sleeping bag too. Snivy raced over to join him and lay next to Peter falling asleep almost instantly. Peter pulled a towel from his bag and used it as a blanket for the Pokemon.

Kelly looked on watching how Peter was caring so kindly to his new Pokemon.

Peter shut his eyes for just a moment.


	5. Chapter 5 - Striation City

Chapter 5 - Striaton City and Kelly's gym battle!

"Sni, sni, sni!" Shouted snivy, using its vines to shake Peter awake.

Peter's eyes flickered open, he blinked a number of times as his eyes tried to resolve the bright image in front of him. He could hear some commotion in the background and he could just make out Kelly's voice amongst the din.

He focussed in to see snivy face to face with him, still shaking him by the shoulders with his vines. He had a concerned look in his one good eye.

"Hey, ok I'm up!" Peter said, carefully removing snivy's vines from his shoulders. Snivy jumped off of Peters chest allowing him to sit up.

He looked around to see their camp had been trashed, empty food packets and clothes were sprinkled all around the camp.

"Snivyyyy." Snivy growled whilst pointing to the path. He looked irritated Peter was taking so long to spring into action.

Peter looked over and saw a large Darmanitan jumping up and down angrily, its round red body bulging with muscle. It roared loudly as its eyebrows flamed intensely.

Squaring off against the Pokemon was Kelly holding a pokeball. As Peter scrambled from his sleeping bag she called,

"OK Lapras, I need your help!"

"Lapras?!" Peter said excitedly out loud.

With a flash of energy a huge bulking form appeared in front of Kelly totally blocking the path. her Lapras was a light blue with a cream underside - a marking which stretched all the way from its chin to the tip of its tail. It looked like a mature pokemon due to the pointed snout and small focussed eyes. On its forehead was a large horn. Its back was covered by a huge brown shell which was itself was covered with many small nubs. It reared up on 4 huge flippers, the rear set being slightly smaller than the front.

It bellowed intimidatingly at its new foe, making its curled, circular ears vibrate.

The darmanitan didnt seem phased and continued to bounce angrily. Peter thought had Lapras not been so large it might not have acknowledged it at all.

"Last chance!" Kelly shouted at the darmanitan across from her. Peter looked but saw no other trainer, this must be a wild Pokemon he thought.

He stepped closer to the two mighty creatures, snivy scurried along behind taking shelter behind Peters leg. He studied the lapras slightly in awe of the water, ice type giant. It weathered features did show some signs of battle and its gaze was iron solid betraying its experience as a battler. He stepped to his left to get a better view of the darmanitan. It certainly was brave not to run from such a behemoth - especially considering the fire type disadvantage.

Peter noticed that the creature was a little weathered, its coat slightly matted but its body looked very powerful. Its oval body encompassed its head showing no discernible neck. Below its fiery eyebrows its huge white and black eyes stared forward. Its sharp saw like teeth were locked together. It was leaning forwards onto its arms and looked ready to charge.

Peters looked in at the Pokemon's rear legs, interestingly the right foot was clenched up like a fist, it looked like the pokemon was leaning all its weight on its front and back left legs. Peter frowned for a moment thinking.

"Ok then, Lapras," Kelly shouted, "Use -"

"Wait!" Peter shouted then repeated more softly, "Wait a moment.."

He edged closer to the darmanitan. He felt snivy gently pulling his trouser leg back concerned. Lapras let out a frustrated grunt as Kelly glanced at Peter shocked at the interruption.

"Snivy," He said looking down, "Dont be afraid, I need you to make sure darmanitan understands everything I'm saying."

"Vi..." Snivy said, shaking. Peter could hear his Pokemon was nervous.

"Peter, you mind telling me what youre doing?" Kelly questioned.

Peter held out a hand to her in a not now motion. Kelly sighed angrily and stroked Lapras neck.

"Darmanitan," Peter began stepping ever closer, "Im here to help you."

Darmanitan roared, causing snivy to scurry back behind Peter, and Lapras to raise itself up on its flippers.

"Its okay." He said sofly, throwing his arms up in submission. Kelly looked on as snivy appeared alongside him again and did the same.

"You look hurt, am I right?" Peter asked. He paused as Snivy repeated his words in his own tongue.

Darmanitan paused watching the human approach slowly.

"Will you let me help you?" Peter asked the creature. Peter was nervous but tried to show confidence, he knew darmanitan could easily crush both him and snivy with one blow.

Snivy repeated Peters words.

Darmanitan looked at Peter and snivy quizzically for a moment, sizing them up. Snivy glanced nervously at Peter as they hit the stalemate. Suddenly darmanitan hoisted itself up onto its front legs and sat down with a thump., its legs outstretched in front of it. Peter looked at the right foot he had spotted before. He noticed it was heavily scratched and had something metallic jutting out of it.

"Snivy," Peter said softly, "Please can you bring me my bag?"

"Snivy." Snivy replied nervously stepping away from Peter. After he had taken a few steps backwards he turned and ran back to Peters sleeping bag to find his bag.

Kelly looked on, fascinated. She continued to pet her lapras who was waiting very patiently next to her.

"I see." Peter said softly, reaching forwards to examine the injury. As he approached darmanitan edged backwards slightly and huffed. Peter felt the creatures warm breath hit his face and arms.

Still mindful of this creatures power, Peter carefully and gently examined the foot. The small cuts could be healed easily and were of no concern. He was more worried about the metallic object, it looked to Peter like a strip of metal.

Snivy came running over dragging Peters bag behind him.

"Vi, Snivy." He said panting.

"Thanks buddy." Peter said, rummaging inside. He pulled out a wooden box and a jar containing some herbs.

He took some of the herbs from the jar and put them into his mouth, crunching. He them opened the small wooden box. It contained a small set of operating equipment, a scalpel, tweezers and some pliers.

He spat out the mashed up leaves onto his hand, looking up at the huge creature in front of him he said,

"Thizz will numb za pain." He drooled slightly as he spoke as the herbs had numbed Peters mouth.

Darmanitan looked confused, as did snivy, but it allowed Peter to apply the herbs to the wounds. It let out a blast of air from its mouth before settling down again and relaxing.

Still drooling Peter glanced back over the Kelly and lapras and winked. Kelly smiled politely looking slightly disgusted by what she saw.

Peter picked up the pliars and clamped onto the piece of metal.

"Buddee," He said looking down at snivy spraying him with spit, "Plesh tell damanthian dis may hurt."

Snivy looked quizically at Peter for a second trying to compute what he had just said, he glanced up at the pliers and suddenly things clicked.

"Snivy, sni, snivy snivy, vi." It said looking up to the powerful Pokemon in front of them.

Darmanitan nodded and closed its eyes.

Peter pulled on the shard gently, it started to come free easily and slid quickly out of the giants foot. Peter quickly applied pressure to the wound and with his other hand rummaged in his bag for a spray. He applied some of the spray to the area which started to hold the two sides of the scar in place. He bandaged the Pokemon's foot and within a few more minutes he was done.

The darmanitan looked down at Peter, whilst slowly climbing to its feet. Applying weight to its right foot it grunted.

"It'll take time." Peter drooled, "Take it eathy."

Snivy repeated Peters words.

Darmanitan nodded. It started to turn but paused growling, "Manitan." softly.

"Youre velcome!" Peter said, sounding as it he had a boiled sweet in his mouth.

He watched the creature slowly walk off into the forest.

"Ha, nice." Kelly said behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Peter laughed, wiping his mouth on his sleeve he turned and smiled at her. His teeth were covered in green herbs.

"Erm," She recoiled slightly. "You better go brush your teeth."

Peter picked up his bag, noticing Jade sitting on the bank. He scooped up the piece of metal and put it in his pocket for now until he could work out how to dispose of it.

"That was cool!" She said excitedly, she reached up to high five him as he walked past.

Kelly returned lapras to its Pokeball before heading up the bank to join Jade. Their campsite was trashed, including their pot. It looked like it had been trodden on, the handle was snapped off and part of it was missing.

"Well, well." Kelly said, grabbing the shard from Peter whilst he was brushing and offering it up to the broken handle. It fitted perfectly.

The group gathered up their things and started their journey to Striaton City.

It didnt take long before the path opened up and the forest cleared revealing the huge skyscrapers of Striaton City in front of them.

"Its amazing!" Said Jade, watching as the afternoon sun glistened off the tall glass buildings.

They soon made it to the city proper and glanced around.

"Hey Kelly!" Jade said excitedly, "The gym is very close to the restaurant! Can we stop for some food first?"

"Well," Kelly paused as her stomach rumbled, "Deal."

Jade guided the group using her Pokegear. As they approached they noticed something odd. The group stood right opposite the Striaton City gym. Either side was no evidence of any restaurant.

"Jade, you said the restaurant was next to the gym, right?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, it shows here.." She held out her Pokegear with the map flashing their location.

"Weird..." Kelly said, "Lets ask inside for directions maybe?"

"I guess, if the map shows this then they must get this all the time." Peter surmised confidently.

"Vi, snivy." Snivy looked up at Peter as his belly rumbled also as a 'hurry up' gesture.

The trio walked under the large sign advertising the fact that this was the gym and stepped through the automatic doors.

The group stopped as they were greeted with a restaurant. Many circular tables with white table cloths sat on a red carpet with a diamond pattern in a lighter red colour.

"Snivy!" Snivy shouted happily smelling food and jumped up at one of the tables and made himself comfortable.

"Erm, I guess..." Kelly stepped forwards to follow snivy, but was intercepted by a red haired waiter.

"Welcome!" He exclaimed showing Kelly to a seat on the same table as snivy. His hair was styled to look like 3 flames, he had freckles on his cheeks and a beaming smile. He was wearing a white shirt with double cuffs, covered by a black waistcoat with two large gold buttons. He wore black formal trousers and shoes. All this was topped off by a bow tie which matched his burning red hair colour.

Kelly walked to he seat he pulled out for her and sat down, looking slightly confused. Peter and Jade also took a seat around the table.

Suddenly another waiter appeared seemingly from thin air holding a white serving towel over his arm. He was wearing the same clothes as the other waiter but had a blue bow tie to match his neck length blue hair.

"The menu." The blue haired waiter said, handing out a leather bound menu book to each of them.

Snivy excitedly turned the pages to the desert section, looking at the pictures he pulled Peters arm and pointed excitedly at the ice creams.

"Listen." Kelly said impatiently, "We are actually looking for the Striaton City gym.."

The two waiters glanced knowingly at each other.

"Perhaps you would like to start with some bread?" The blue haired waiter asked.

"If you cant help us," Kelly continued, looking back at Jade and Peter, "Maybe we can ask at another restaurant?"

"Oh I dont think that will be necessary." The red haired waiter said stepping back to the far wall.

Kelly glanced nervously at Peter.

The blue haired waited stepped towards the other as he flicked a switch. The wall started to slide open.

Snivy stopped shaking Peters arm and looked up in awe at as the wall completed its movement revealing a rocky battlefield beyond. Other diners suddenly started applauding and cheering at the sight.

"Viiiiii.." The snivy gasped, jaw agape.

"I know right?" Jade added, equally astonished.

"I am Chili," The red haired waiter said proudly, "And this is my brother Cress."

Cress bowed slightly at the waist.

"And we are the Striaton City gym leaders!" Chili continued.

The two beckoned the group into the newly revealed room. As they entered they noticed the high walls and glass ceiling. The other diners disappeared up a flight of stairs to the right and appeared out on a balcony above the battlefield.

"I'm Kelly from Cerulean City in the Kanto region." Kelly said proudly, "This is my sister Jade who is travelling with me."

Jade bowed.

"I'm Peter, a Pokemon Doctor." Peter added.

"Vi, Snivy." Came a voice, everyone looked down at Peters side where snivy stood proudly still carrying a menu.

"What happened to your snivy?" Asked Cress, noticing the eye patch over snivys left eye.

"We rescued him.. " Jade began, "His trainer abused him so he joined us. Peter helped him get better."

"Hm," Cress began, "That kind of thing always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It sounds a good thing you came a long when you did."

Peter nodded in unison with Jade and snivy.

"And whilst we are on the subject of Pokemon, allow us to introduce our Pokemon partners!" Chili threw a pokeball up in the air, "Heats on!"

In a burst of energy a Pansear appeared. The red monkey had a tuft of red hair resembling a flame on top of its head in between its large ears. It danced on the spot like a boxer, throwing a few punches into the air.

"...And this is the Pokemon I'll be using!" Cress exclaimed throwing another pokeball into the air, " Make a splash!"

A Panpour materialised in front of them, the blue monkey had a large tuft of hair on its head resembling a splash of water.

"Cool!" Peter said quietly, fumbling in his bag for his camera.

"If you defeat any one of us then you will be rewarded with the trio badge!" Chili exclaimed.

"Trio," Kelly said confused, "Then shouldn't there be three of you?"

"Ah yes," Cress began, "Our brother Cilan is on his own journey of discovery." "I see.." Kelly said.

Peter glanced at Jade who was searching each of the Pokemon on her Pokegear.

"So, who will you choose as your opponent?" Chili asked excitedly.

"Fire or water type?" Jade mumbled to herself.

Kelly glanced at the two gym leaders, then down at their Pokemon. Thinking for a few moments she replied,

"Chili, I choose you and Pansear."

"It would he my honour!" Chili smiled.

Cress looked slightly bemused for a moment before responding,

"Very well, then I shall referee." Looking up at Peter and Jade he said, "You can view from up there if you choose."

He pointed to the balcony above the entrance. Peter looked up and noticed that above the left side of the entrance a large gathering of cheerleaders had formed. The right side was empty.

"All right." Peter said cheerfully, enjoying the spectacle.

Jade nodded and the three of the them climbed the stairs. Taking a left they appeared on the right side. Peter took out his camera and leaned on the railing to get a steady purchase. He felt a tugging on his trouser leg, then his back as snivy clambered up onto his shoulder for a better view of the battlefield. Jade took up a position next to them and placed both her hands on the railing, watching her sister intently.

"You havent seen Kelly battle yet, have you?" Jade said looking straight ahead,

"No, every time here has been an interruption of some kind!" Peter thought back.

"Your attention!" Came Cress' voice who had now taken up a position along side the battlefield, "Todays battle will be Kelly the challenger versus Chili the gym leader!" He glanced from side to side at each of the battlers. "Only one Pokemon each and when either side is unable to battle, the match is over."

The cheerleaders started chanting "Lets go Chili, all the way, win this battle - YAAAAYY!"

"All right, lets turn up the heat!" Chili called.

"OK," Kelly called back, "Dewott, I need your help!"

Kelly threw up a Pokeball and with a flash of energy Dewott appeared on the battlefield.

"Dewott!" The Pokemon exclaimed, standing confidently.

"Awesome!" Peter said, clicking his camera. He suddenly felt snivy shift on his shoulder and a shiver from the pokemon. Peter flashed back to that evening when snivy was hurt.

"Hey," Peter turned his head to glance at snivy, "If you dont wanna watch dewott, its alright, we can go somewhere else."

Snivy could sense Peter's excitement to see Kelly battle and he didnt want to show a weakness in front of Peter,

"Vi Snivy." Snivy snapped, as an 'Are you Kidding!?'

"Alright," Peter said, "But if you wanna go, we can go anytime."

Snivy felt touched. He looked at Peter proudly, he was still getting used to people listening to his feelings. Enjoying this feeling of safety snivy settled down again on Peters shoulder.

On the battlefield the two trainers and their pokemon squared off against each other.

"Good choice, a water type like Dewott has an advantage over my Pansear, a fire type," Chili started, "But we are prepared for everything!"

"Dewott, start this off this Hydro Pump!" Kelly shouted.

Twisting its arms to form a circle dewott formed a orb of water in front of his chest. It took a step forward, whilst at the same time pushing its arms out towards pansear. A large jet of water sprayed out in a straight line towards his opponent.

"Dodge it!" Chili shouted and watched on as the elemental monkey gracefully jumped up over the hydro pump attack and landed on a rock to the side.

"Now use dig!" Chili commanded. The fire monkey dived off the rock and into the earth tunnelling furiously it disappeared from view.

Dewott dropped its arms from the hydro pump and looked around for its opponent. Confused that pansear was nowhere in sight he glanced back to Kelly.

"Keep your guard up!" Kelly called, "He will show up any second now.."

Just then the fire monkey sprang from the ground knocking dewott onto his back with a powerful attack.

"Now follow up with fire punch, go!" Chili called out.

Pansear's fist began to glow red hot as it telegraphed the punch. Landing a direct hit as dewott staggered to his feet. Dewott was knocked down once again by the force of the punch and slid hard into a boulder on the other side of the battlefield.

"Dewott!" Kelly cried in alarm.

Dewott climbed to his feet defiantly "Dew-ott!" it growled through gritted teeth.

"Dewott, u ok?" Kelly asked.

Kelly's pokemon stepped forwards silently. Confidently it took its fighting stance once again.

"Pansear, use dig once more!" Chili called as pansear once again burrowed underground.

On the balcony Jade clenched her fists and banged them on the railing, "Come on sis!" She called, "Dewott you can do it!"

The other side of her the cheerleaders were going wild.

"Dewott," Kelly said softly, "Listen closely, remember just like before.. "

Dewott stopped and dropped his arms by his side, clasping at his seashell like scalchops. He bowed his head and closed his eyes.

The battlefield went silent as dewott concentrated. He focussed in on his heart beat. Suddenly a vibration, getting stronger, a rumbling sound... Dewott's muscles tensed, clasping onto his scalchops tightly. The sound grew louder, the vibrations stronger.

Peter watched on through his camera lens, his finger poised on the shutter. His finger muscles twitched and at that moment dewott jumped into the air followed by pansear exploding from the ground milliseconds later.

"Now razor shell!" Kelly called excitedly.

Dewott pulled the scalchops from its thighs and the shells began to glow a fierce blue. Pansear looked around confused for a moment before seeing the sea otter's flashing blades heading towards it.

Dewott elegantly swang its blades striking the fire type twice whilst they were both still airborne. The blows sent pansear whirling down to the ground with a heavy thump. Dewott landed gracefully a few metres away.

"Now dewott, use hydro pump before they can recover!" Kelly shouted.

Dewott replaced its scalchops and with a circular motion of its arms created an orb of water which jetted out towards the struggling pansear.

Pansear staggered to his feet, turning its head just in time for the hydropump to connect, sending him flying back across the battlefield into the far wall.

Pansear climbed up dazed, "Pansear, use flamethrower!" Chili called out.

"Block it!" Kelly called out as pansear bellowed a jet of flame towards her pokemon.

Dewott snatched his scalchops from his side and crossed the blades in front of him. The flames were harmlessly deflected to either side.

"Dewott," Kelly called as the flames subsided, "Use aqua jet to finish this!"

Dewott closed its eyes, stepping backwards it formed a wave of water which it stepped back into, propelling him forwards like a torpedo. Once in the jet of water dewott opened his eyes and orientated himself towards pansear.

"Pansear, dodge it with dig!" Chili called out urgently.

The fire monkey once again burrowed under ground and out of sight.

"Not this time!" Kelly called, "Dewott, follow pansear into the hole!"

Dewott expertly climbed his aqua jet into the air slightly before diving straight down into the hole left by pansear.

"What!" Exclaimed Chili, "There's no way..."

He was interrupted by pansear exploding from the ground in a geyser of water headed by dewott.

Pansear flew high into the air. Dewott landed looking up at the fire type pokemon falling to the ground. He again took up his fighting pose and reached down to prepare for another razor shell attack.

Pansear kept falling, spinning slightly in the air. Dewott looked over at Kelly expecting her to command another razor shell but she said nothing. Dewott refocussed and watched patiently.

Pansear hit the ground and skidded slightly. Its eyes were closed and it lay motionless for a few moments before letting out a groan.

"Pansear is unable to battle," Cress called out, "And that means the challenger Kelly is the winner!"

Jade cheered, she looked over at the cheerleaders who had suddenly gone very quiet and blew a rasberry at them. Snivy did the same as he jumped down from Peters shoulder onto the ground.

"You tell them snivy!" Jade chuckled.

They rushed down the steps toward the battlefield.

"That was great pansear!" Chili said holding up his pokeball, "You deserve a good rest!"

Pansear disappeared in a flash of energy, back into his pokeball. Turning to Kelly Chili added, "A great battle."

He extended his hand to her as they met by the entrance. As they shook hands they were joined by Jade, Peter and snivy. Upon seeing Dewott, snivy hurriedly climbed onto Peters shoulder, dropping his menu in the process.

Whilst Peter and Jade congratulated Kelly, dewott came over to Peter's side and picked up the menu. He held it up to snivy, bowing slightly.

"Vi." Snivy snapped, snatching back the menu using its vines. He glared for a moment at dewott before softening for a second nervously adding, "snivy."

Dewott again bowed deeply and walked back towards Kelly. Standing next to her like a guard he folded his arms and stood patiently.

"Here Kelly, this is for you." Cress held out a small case.

"This is the trio badge." Chili added, "Proof you have beaten the striaton gym!"

"Thank you so much!" Kelly said, accepting the badge.

The two gym leaders smiled.

"Now about lunch..." Kelly chuckled.

Hearing he word 'lunch' snivy excitedly jumped down from Peter's shoulder still clutching his menu. He bounded back to the table and sat down, his head barely making it above the height of the table. He excitedly flipped the pages of the menu to the ice cream section and started pointing wildly at his selection whilst looking over at Peter with his good eye.

"I guess that settles that." Jade giggled and went to join snivy.

Peter and Kelly followed her. Peter sat to snivy's right whilst Jade sat to his left. Kelly sat next to her sister.

"And you," Kelly said beckoning, "You have earned this!"

Over in the doorway dewott bowed and walked over to the table. He silently took up a position next to Kelly.

Snivy stiffened and glanced at Peter nervously.

"Vii.." Snivy said under his breath, tapping Peters arm.

"Dewott has deserved this snivy." Peter said, knowing that this must be difficult for him.

Snivy ducked lower in his seat so just his eye and the top of his head was visible above the table. He remained this way as Kelly, Peter and Jade ordered their food.

A few minutes passed, Chili and Cress returned with their food.

"Not many people stay to eat after a battle!" He said, placing the orders on the table, "Its quite an honour! Bon appétit!"

"Thanks," Kelly smiled, taking a huge bite out of her sandwich.

Snivy sat up in his seat, in front of him was a small chocolate and vanilla ice cream topped with grass type Pokemon food. His stomach growled in anticipation. He picked up his spoon carefully and reached up to take a scoop. Proudly he put the spoon into his mouth looking around to Peter and Kelly, then he noticed that dewott was eating a large banana split which was much larger than his small bowl.

"Vi, snivy!" Snivy pulled on Peter's arm again, whilst pointing with his spoon.

"Snivy," Peter began, looking down at his Pokemon, "Dewott earned this, besides, you had a huge ice cream earlier on - its not healthy for you to eat so much sweet stuff."

"Vi." Snivy said sharply and sank back down into his seat.

Dewott sat back as he stuffed another piece of banana into his mouth. He chewed happily enjoying the treat. He looked over to see snivy pointing at him and tapping his humans arm. He glanced at the other Pokemon's food, then at his own. A prang of guilt hit dewott right in the stomach. He felt remorse for what he had done last time he and snivy met in battle, but he had expected Snivy to defend or ... do something. He remembered his concern having struck his opponent and what happened moments later... He noticed the snivy's eye patch and wondered if this was the result of the attack and why the snivy seemed to dislike him.

Cutting a large chunk of banana and ice cream dewott picked up his bowl and got off his seat. He silently walked over to snivy.

Peter noticed snivy visibly tense as dewott walked over. The pokemon leaned forward and gently added a scoop of banana and ice cream to snivy's bowl. He stepped back and bowed slightly before returning to his seat.

Snivy sat for a moment, spoon in mouth looking at the addition to his bowl. He carefully reached forwards and took a small piece of banana.

Snivy turned his head to look at dewott with his uncovered eye, "Snivy vi." He remarked. He took a bite of the banana, the small chunk totally filling the small creatures mouth, "Vi snivy, vi!" He chomped.

Dewott allowed himself a slight grin as snivy completed his second remark. In snivy's words - 'I dont forgive you yet... but this is a good start.'

The team finished their meal and thanked Chili and Cress for their hospitality.

Jade found the location of the local Pokemon Centre on her pokegear and the group set off. The sun had started to set and the streetlights had started to light the pavements in a dim yellow light.

Kelly was turning her new trio badge over and over in her fingers as they walked. She grinned and ran her fingers through dewott's spiky hair as he walked next to her.

"You did great today." Kelly said to her pokemon.

"Wott!" Dewott said cheerfully, looking up at Kelly proudly.

The group walked into the Pokemon centre. the familiar 5 tones played as they walked in. A couple of trainers sat on a bench in the middle of the reception area.

A brown haired boy sat sleeping to the far left of the bench. He was holding a sandile on his lap. The small crocodile looked like it was sleeping also. To the right of him a boy and a girl fussed over joltik which was nestled in between them.

"Welcome to the Striaton City Pokemon Centre!" Nurse Joy beamed from the reception desk.

As the group walked over to nurse Joy snivy scurried over to the other pokemon. As he approached one of the sandiles eyes winked open. It waited for snivy to skip past before grabbing the large leaf on snivy's tail with its teeth. Snivy turned his head to look, forgetting his blind side he quickly snapped his head back the other way. Sandile laughed dropping snivy's tail.

"Dile, saaaandile!" It laughed. Sandile closed one eye and mimicked snivy's movements.

Snivy's head dropped and he turned to walk away, again forgetting his blind side he bumped into another pokemon stood beside him. Snivy stumbled backwards a few steps before righting himself, much to sandiles amusement. Snivy turned his head in order to see the other pokemon. It was dewott, his eyes locked on the sandile.

Snivy looked on as dewott took a step forwards and barked,

"Dewott, ott!"

Sandile stopped laughing, poking its trainer with its tail it replied,

"S-Sand... sandile.."

Dewott nodded and glanced over at snivy. Snivy folded his arms in response and looked away.

"Vi." He said bluntly turning his nose up into the air.

Dewott frowned and turned to walk back to Kelly and the others, when he noticed snivy following him closely. He allowed himself a small grin trying his best not to let snivy see. Each time dewott glanced down he noticed snivy pretend that he wasnt following him.

They rejoined the group and saying goodnight retired to their rooms.

Peter and snivy entered their room. It had wood panelling half way up the wall, above that white paint. Some pictures of famous structures in Striaton City were hung at intervals along the walls. Opposite the entrance to the room, on the far wall was a huge window which looked out over the city. Snivy jumped up onto the desk in front of the window and looked out. He pressed his hands and nose to the glass as he looked at all he skyscrapers lit up in the darkness.

On the desk was a complimentary fruit bowl. Peter took an apple and rolled it to the pokemon. Snivy felt the apple bump against his tail. He giggled, and using his vines he chopped the apple in two with one swift movement. He held one half to Peter smiling.

"Thanks Buddy!" Peter smiled, taking a bite of the apple. With his other hand, he patted snivy on the head before closing the curtains. Snivy laughed playfully and picked up the other half of the apple and gnawed on it.

After finishing the apple piece Peter settled down on the bed in the centre of the room. Snivy jumped onto the bed with him and snuggled in closely to him, curling up with his head resting on his tail. Peter put his arm around his Pokemon and leaning back on the pillow, closed his eyes for just a minute.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Nightmare

Chapter 6 - The nightmare

Snivy opened his eye. Darkness. Realising that he had again forgotten his blind eye he sighed and rolled onto his back. He stretched and yawned loudly. He was slowly getting used to his new eye sight but now and then it still caught him out.

He opened his eye again slowly allowing himself to adjust to the bright light in the room. He squinted and glanced to his left. He could see Peter still asleep under a mound of covers.

Snivy sat up looking at the beams of light from the window highlighting small dust particles in the air. Suddenly his stomach growled loudly, Remembering the bowl of fruit on the desk snivy jumped down from the bed and using his vines propelled himself up next to the fruit bowl.

He looked down hungrily, surveying the remaining fruit. A brown banana was all that remained, and it had some kind of fur on it. He recoiled slightly and sighed.

He jumped down from the desk and scurried back to the bed. Peter was still sleeping, he must be very tired snivy thought to himself, it did look very warm and cozy under those covers.

His stomach growled again. He thought for a moment before pouncing onto the stack of covers, but was disappointed to find Peter didnt wake up.

Snivy stood and thought again. He decided to forget his belly and snuggle under the covers and try and fall back to sleep. He carefully walked to the foot of the bed and ducked under the covers. To his surprise it was cold underneath. He scampered forwards and within a couple of seconds had reached the head of the bed. Snivy stopped confused, holding the covers he jumped onto the floor, pulling them from the bed. It was empty.

Confused, snivy jumped back on the bed,

"Snivy?" He called out.

He jumped down again and looked around. Perhaps Peter is in the washroom and didnt hear me? He thought, calming himself.

He walked over to the door by the entrance and using his vines pulled the handle. It was dark inside, but snivy had seen Peter operate the light before. He jumped up and grabbed the cord. Snivy hung from the cord as the light flickered on. No one was there, in fact none of Peters things were there on the sink either.

Disappointed snivy jumped back to the floor. Where were Peters things? Where was Peter? He sprinted back into the main room, looking on the chair next to the bed he noticed Peters bag was gone. He looked under the bed, behind the curtains, under the chair. No sign.

He began to panic, had he left him? No, he knew Peter was his friend. He felt sure he wouldn't abandon him. Calm down he thought, he would be back for him.

Snivy waited, it felt like hours. He felt so alone.

'Kelly and Jade!' He exclaimed, 'He must be with them, or at least they will know where he is!'

He excitedly ran to the entrance and using his vines, pulled the handle.

The door clicked open. He leaned on the door and pushed it slowly open. It felt very heavy. and took all of snivy's strength to push it.

Leaning out of the doorway he glanced left and right. The corridor was empty. He could hear a tapping noise in the distance, but apart from this it was totally silent.

Kelly and Jade's room was just across the hallway. Snivy stepped into the hall and walked confidently to the door opposite. Using his vines he pulled the leaver down and the door clicked open.

Leaning on the door snivy pushed it open enough to see inside. It was dark in the room, but he could see some figures moving near the window.

He stepped into the room.

"Vi?" He whispered "Vi Sniiivy?"

No one answered. As he stepped forwards he heard the door click shut behind him, darkening the room even more.

Suddenly he stopped and his whole body tensed. He could feel something approaching from his left side. Under normal circumstances snivys have a very wide field of view due to their large eyes placed on the side of their heads, but snivy had lost 50% of his vision on his left side, anything coming directly from his left is totally blank to him.

He stood frozen, he could feel the presence in the darkness, closer and closer. He slowly turned his head to see what was there. Nothing but darkness.

He stepped forwards towards Kelly and Jade. He could see them moving by the window. Finally safety and he could find Peter.

"Snivy." He said, "snivy, vi." (If this is a game, its not fun for me).

The figures stopped moving and stood totally still. Suddenly the room was totally quiet again.

"Snivy?" Snivy questioned.

As snivy stepped closer his eyes started to resolve the shapes. There was only one figure. It was large like a bear and holding something in each hand.

Considering he could be in the wrong room, snivy started to back away towards the exit. As he did so the figure stepped forwards. In just two steps the figure had reached snivys position.

Snivy looked up at the hulking figure, it was dewott, but different. His mouth was much larger than before and his teeth were sharp and jagged. His eyes seemed to be looking right though him. Snivy recoiled in fear as the dewott leaned forwards its jaws nashing at him. Snivy span around and ran towards the exit. In the darkness he slammed into the door and fell backwards onto his bottom. Shaking his head he looked up, into a mirror. He looked at his reflection for a second, it was him but he noticed his eye patch had fallen off. He could see the in its place a horrible scar running through his eye and causing the skin around his eye to droop downwards. It looked like the left side of his face had been burned somehow leaving only rough scaled skin. He felt like a monster, who would want a freak like him?

He felt a tear fall from his eye and he climbed back to his feet. Jumping up he grabbed the door handle which sprang open. He fell into the corridor landing on his face.

He jumped to his feet and without looking back he ran. He so desperately wanted to see a familiar face, someone to save him. He closed his eyes and ran and ran. It felt like the corridor went on forever. Suddenly he slammed into someone. They were warm, he felt arms surrounding him. Finally, Peter he thought. Opening his eyes he was confronted with his former trainer.

"You're going to regret leaving me." The boy slobbered and started laughing uncontrollably.

Snivy squirmed and struggled to escape the embrace but he felt like all his strength had been sapped from him.

The boy held up a Pokeball and snivy felt his skin tingle as he was surrounded in a red stream of energy. He struggled against it but it was to no avail. He felt himself sucked into the ball, his legs and arms felt bound to his sides, he couldnt move.

Peter walked into the bedroom from the washroom and looked at his Pokemon. He was wrapped in the blankets tightly. Peter thought he looked very cosy and wondered what he was dreaming about.

He had to wake him, as much as he hated to do it as Kelly and Jade were waiting for them to go and get some breakfast.

He sat on the bed and slowly untucked snivy from the covers.

"Hey buddy," He said softly, "Its time to wake up!"

"VI!" Snivy awoke with a start. Panicking and waving his arms he looked around the room.

"Hey, sorry." Peter apologised, "Its time for some breakfast - Kelly and Jade are waiting for us."

"Vi?" Snivy looked up at Peter, "Vi?"

Peter noticed snivys right eye had filled with tears. Rushing forwards snivy hugged him.

"Whats up?" Peter asked, looking down at his Pokemon, confused.

"Vi snivy." Snivy replied, burying his had in Peters shirt 'nothing now.'

"Come on," Peter said, scooping him up, "Lets get some food huh?"

Snivy nodded. Finally he felt safe.


	7. Chapter 7 - The road to Nacreen City

Chapter 7 - The road to Nacreen City

Peter scooped up Snivy with is left arm and with his free hand picked up his bag and pushed through the door.

The pair hurried down the stairs into the reception area. Peter followed the directions to the restaurant section. Turning down a corridor and pushing through some double doors he was presented with a small room with small booth tables along each wall. Directly in front of them was a buffet bar.

"Snivy!" Snivy shouted, seeing Kelly and Jade sat at one of the benches.

Peter smiled and gave a wave, he put snivy down.

"You go and join them, I will be right there in a couple of minutes." Peter said.

Snivy nodded and scurried over to their booth. He struggled up onto the bench and sat down next to Jade. From this position he was barely able to see over the table.

"Hey snivy!" Jade said happily greeting the Pokemon.

Snivy smiled and hugged her. Glancing back over the table he could just about make out dewott on the other side next to Kelly eating a bowl of Pokemon food. He sank down in his seat and watched Peter collecting some cereal from the bar.

Peter smiled at his Pokemon as he squeezed onto the bench next to Jade.

"Morning everyone!" He said cheerfully.

"Hey." Kelly said through a mouthful of rice. Jade nodded, inspecting Peters bowl. It looked like he had selected the most bland cereal flakes available.

Peter tucked in, taking a large spoonful of the breakfast and crunching.

Snivy's looked on enviously at the bowl of cereal, his belly grumbled loudly as he realised how hungry he was.

"Ahem." Jade coughed, hearing the noise. She nudged Peter and glanced down at snivy.

"Oh right!" Peter said, quickly finishing his mouthfull. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small dish and a jar of the Pokemon food he had brought in Accumula town. He tapped a small amount of the food into the dish and slid it in front of snivy.

Snivy grasped the edge of the table with his hands and tried to hoist himself higher to reach the food. Seeing his predicament, Jade lifted snivy up onto the table as Peter tucked the jar away in his bag.

Snivy nodded at her cheerfully. From his new vantage point he looked around the table. Dewott nodded politely at him. Snivy sat down and nodded back indifferently. He took a piece of the food from the bowl and delicately put it into his mouth savouring the flavour as he crunched it.

Peter smiled at snivy and continued with his cereal. Snivy turned to look at Jade who was studying her Pokegear.

"So, you wanna hit the gym in Nacrene next huh?" Jade said, looking over at Kelly.

"Yeah," Kelly said, "I have a Pokemon in mind for this one.. "

"Oh?" Peter asked, unable to hide his interest, "Any clues who you are going to use?"

"I wont reveal my strategy." Kelly said bluntly. Allowing herself a grin when she noticed Peters disappointment.

Finishing his food snivy sat back from his bowl and burped lightly. Suddenly realising everyone was looking at him he covered his mouth and blushed.

"Well, if everyone is done - shall we get moving?" Kelly said, glancing around the table.

Peter nodded, whilst using a tissue to wipe snivy's bowl and put it back into his bag.

He slid to the edge and stood up next to dewott. He patted the sea otter on the head softly as they watched Kelly and Jade collect their things and get to their feet. Snivy jumped off the table onto the bench and then to the floor in 2 quick fluid movements. He landed next to Peter and rubbed his eye patch lightly before glancing up at his friend.

The group set off, leaving the Pokemon centre they were presented with a bright sunny day, although the morning breeze was a little cold.

Peter watched as Kelly returned dewott to his Pokeball after he started complaining of the cold. He wondered if snivy would prefer to be inside also. Looking down on the path next to him he could see snivy shiver slightly as they stood and waited.

Peter rummaged on his belt and watched as snivy's Pokeball grew to its normal size. Snivy glanced up at Peter confused. He shook his head, he wanted to stay outside with him.

"Looks like he prefers to be outside of his Pokeball." Kelly said.

Peter had read about Pokemon like this during his studies. Whereas most pokemon couldnt wait to get back into the carefully engineered environment inside the ball, some Pokemon preferred the real world, even if the conditions were unpleasant at the time.

"I guess so." Peter smiled replacing the ball onto the back of his belt. Snivy smiled back at him as Peter picked him up.

The group continued along the street, passing various shops and offices. Peter was amazed by the skyscrapers, looking up into the air and seeing them seemingly disappearing into the clouds.

"There is an awesome museum in Nacrene City!" Jade said, looking up from her Pokegear, "All kinds of interesting things there.." She held the screen over to Peter.

"Hey yeah," Peter remarked, scanning the images, "Perhaps we can take a look after your battle, Kelly?"

"You can do whatever you like!" Kelly said, looking back at him, "I mean, you dont have to travel with us if you have other things you want to do.. I know you are on a schedule to get to the hospital in Opalucid and everything.. "

"Oh," Peter said, taken aback, "Well, thats true I know, but I am really enjoying travelling with you both." He said politely, "And I know snivy is too."

"Snivy!" Snivy said cheerfully.

"So if you dont mind me tagging along...?"

"Of course not!" Jade interrupted, grabbing Peters arm, "and I would miss snivy if you were to go without us!"

Snivy blushed and covered his face.

"I guess having a Pokemon doctor with us is quite useful." Kelly grinned, looking over her shoulder, "But you're going to have to keep up with us!"

She started to run down the street, laughing. Jade and Peter looked at each other and took off in pursuit. It didnt take long at this speed to reach the track to Nacrene City.

Kelly waited for the others by a sign marked 'Route 3.'

"Come on Slowpoke's!" She called as Peter and Jade jogged up. She took a swig of water from her flask and leaned on the sign.

"Yeah, yeah." Jade said, grabbing the flask as she arrived and taking a drink.

Peter fumbled in his bag for his flask and took a drink too. He offered some to snivy who gladly accepted.

As the group was getting refreshed a group of trainers walked past. They were talking loudly and were all wearing vest tops with black shorts. One of them had a Zubat flapping wildly above her.

"Ha!" Grunted one of the boys in the group, "Check out that guys pokemon, how pathetic!"

The others in the group laughed, including Zubat. Peter glanced around to see that no one else was there, they must be referring to snivy and himself.

Snivy looked up at Peter, obviously hurt.

"Ignore them buddy." Peter said, packing his water bottle away.

"Huh." Snorted a girl in the group, "I guess he dont 'SEE' us."

This caused more laughter.

Snivy looked again at Peter. He couldn't help how he was he thought. He glanced back at the group, looking at Zubat he remembered his battle with India's growlithe. He felt he was stronger than any zubat.

"Snivvvvvv..." He growled, looking back at Peter.

"Peter, you cant let them get away with that!" Kelly said, "Snivy can take that weakling Zubat."

The group woo'ed in unison.

"Yeah, I'd be up for a battle." The girl with the Zubat flying above her said, "Show you how a proper Pokemon performs in battle."

"Snivvvvv." Snivy growled again.

"Alright." Peter said, "Fine." He looked down at snivy, "You wanna do this?"

Snivy glanced again at Zubat then back at Peter.

"Snivy." He said confidently, making a fist pump gesture.

"There is a field just down here, big enough for a battle." One of the younger members of the group said, pointing.

They all travelled down a small overgrown patch to a clearing.

Peter and snivy stood at one side, the girl from the group at the other.

"Go Venipede!" She shouted, to whoops from the group stood behind her. She threw up a pokeball and a fearsome bug and poison type Pokemon emerged. It was a deep red colour insect with black stripes on its feelers. Its body was red and black with a single back circle marking on each side. Its tail was composed of a menacing looking pincer.

"Oh no." Jade said softly, looking at Kellys Pokedex. Snivy was weak to both poison and bug types which made venipede an excellent choice. She looked up again at the battlefield, she noticed for the first time how small snivy was, he was barely larger than the Venipede stood before him. Venipede stood on 8 short legs about 0.4m high according to the Pokedex. Snivy looked hardly any taller, he couldn't be much more than 0.4m himself - if that - she thought.

Snivy looked back to Peter nervously. He had never seen a Venipede before, it looked threatening he thought as he fought against his natural instincts to flee.

Peter looked on at his snivy as it glanced at him, seeing the concern in his one functioning eye. He was an idiot to let snivy do this, even more of an idiot to assume she would use Zubat he thought to himself.

"Whats the problem, wanna forfeit?" The girl mocked, seeing their concern.

Peter and snivy stood their ground.

"OK!" Came a voice, "This will be a one on one Pokemon battle. The battle will end when one Pokemon is unable to battle."

Both trainers nodded looking over to Kelly on the sideline.

"OK, since that is understood, begin the battle."

"Venipede!" The girl shouted, "Take them out quickly with poison sting."

The insect scurried left and right lining up the small grass type snivy in its sights. Two glowing purple darts emanated from the creatures forehead and spat towards snivy.

"Snivy, dodge it quickly and counter with vine whip." Peter called.

Snivy turned his head to focus on the incoming projectiles with his right eye. Waiting for the perfect moment he used his vines to propel himself high into the air, dodging the poison darts. On his decent he whipped his vines at the venipede below him.

"Use protect!" The girl called from across the battlefield.

Venipede produced an ora around its body which glowed with energy.

Snivy's whip like vines approached, landing either side of the bug type. Snivy lashed his vines again landing two direct hits but causing no damage.

"Venipede, wait for snivy to land and use steamroller." The girl called.

"Steamroller..." Jade muttered tapping on her pokedex, "it looks like this is a really experienced pokemon..."

Snivy landed gracefully, pausing for a moment he used his tail to balance himself and shift his body so he could see his opponent with his right side.

Seeing his foe landing with his left side towards her venipede took her chance. Knowing the snivy would not even see her coming, she rolled her body and threw herself into the steamroller attack.

Snivy turned just a second too late as venipede crashed into him, venipede's hard shelled body crushing him into the ground.

"Snivy, are you ok?" Peter called out, his voice full of concern.

Venipede rolled to a stop and looked back to check on her handywork.

Snivy was struggling to his feet. He felt dizzy and found it difficult to focus. He heard Peter call out to him but his voice sounded distorted and strange.

Seeing that snivy was climbing to his feet with his left side facing venipede the girl knew it was her chance for an easy win, "Venipede, use your poison sting now!"

Venipede grinned seeing her opponent oblivious to her location. She felt totally in control of this battle and could use the snivy's disability to her full advantage. Using all her might she spat two poisoned darts at snivy who had just staggered onto his feet.

"Snivy, dodge it!" Peter called, snivy looked around him to try and determine the direction of the threat.

The venipede's aim was excellent and the two darts hit snivy hard on the left side of his body. Snivy winced as the two darts pierced his skin and delivered their toxin. He fell to one knee. He felt his body temperature rise, his sight was so blurry affecting his balance.

"Snivy, are you alight?" Peter called from the sideline.

Snivy stumbled back onto two feet. He shook his head to clear his sight.

"Snivy." He said taking a deep breath and trying to sound as normal as possible, although he was unable to control a slight tremor in his answer.

"Venipede, steam roller again and end this." The girl called.

Venipede once again rolled itself into a tight ball and sped towards her target. Snivy's head snapped to the left, seeing the pokemon heading directly for him.

"Snivy, dodge it and counter with vine whip." Peter called out.

Snivy felt too weak to propel himself into the air. With each breath he could feel his energy draining. He felt his fever getting worse as the toxins flowed through his veins. He deployed his vines and at just milliseconds before venipede hit he pushed himself off the ground and landed to the right of the speeding bug type. Retracting his vines and lashing them out again he struck the venipede on its right side again and again.

"Snivy, use tackle and take it down!" He heard Peter call.

Snivy summoned all of his remaining energy and sprinted towards the other pokemon. He couldnt feel his legs but he didnt stop. He dropped his shoulder and slammed into the venipede at full speed.

The impact knocked the wind out of venipedes lungs and she let out a blast of air. Snivy fell to one knee the other side of her, keeping her in sight.

"Venipede, get up!" The other trainer called.

Keeping venipede to his right snivy started to slowly circle the other pokemon as it staggered up.

"Snivy, use tackle again! You can do this!" Peter called to him.

Snivys confidence returned as adrenaline flowed through him, temporarily countering the poison and the fatigue biting him. Digging his heels into the grass he sprinted again towards the bug pokemon.

"Dodge it Venipede, dodge to the right now!" The girl called.

Venipede rolled to the right, into snivys blind spot. Snivys tackle missed its target. Skidding to a stop in a cloud of dust snivy again used his tail to steady himself. He had lost sight of venipede again, his head flicked left and right as he scanned the battlefield.

"Venoshock!" Called the girl from the sideline.

"Oh no.. " Kelly said, looking on. She knew snivy was already suffering from poison sting. If Venoshock landed snivy was done for.

Making sure to keep herself to the left of snivy venipede recoiled back onto her four rearmost legs and let out a ball of purple, black energy. The globule of poison flew through the air.

"Oh no..." Peter said under his breath, "Snivy you have to dodge now!" Peter shouted.

Snivys head pounded, he felt the effects of the poison again making him dizzy. He heard Peter call to him, "Dodge now!"

Snivys muscles tensed as he pushed himself off the ground with all his strength. The ball of poison clipped the large leaf on snivy's tail, sending him spinning head over foot back to the ground. He shuddered as he hit the floor. He felt like he was going to be sick, his body was burning and his energy was gone. He blacked out.

"Snivy is unable to battle..." Kelly said, half in shock, "Venipede and... "

"Joy." The girl called, "its Joy."

"Venipede and Joy are the winners." Kelly finished.

Peter ignored Kelly's words and rushed out onto the field to his pokemon. Joy walked out to join him and return Venipede to her pokeball.

"That was a good battle." She said, "Hes strong for such a little guy.. with more training this might have been different." She held out her hand to Peter.

Peter was looking down at snivy, crouched on one knee. He didnt notice Joy's hand until she coughed.

"Oh, sorry." Peter said taking her hand, "Thanks, I guess."

Joy turned and walked away. Her group of friends were yelling congratulatory remarks to her, any jibes against snivy were quickly silenced by Joy and they filed out of the clearing.

Peter crouched down again,

"Snivy.." He said, "Are you ok?"

Snivy groaned in response.

Peter touched snivy's head, he was running a very high fever. He checked his body and found the 2 poison darts, looking at his tail he noticed that the areas the venoshock had hit had caused the leaf to brown and die.

Peter picked up snivy who groaned as he was moved and carried him over to the sidelines. He put him down gently next to his bag. He fumbled inside and pulled out an antidote for the poison and a spray to treat the wounds on his side.

Using small syringe he squirted the solution into snivys mouth. The watched carefully as the pokemon choked it down. Peter spoke softly to his pokemon as he treated the wounds on his side and tail.

"Is he okay?" Jade said running over.

"He will be fine." Peter said as Kelly joined them.

"Just need some time for this antidote to work." Peter said, "He will probably sleep for a while."

Peter sat down on the ground and laid snivy on his lap. He kept his hand on snivys back, monitoring his condition, checking his breathing and heart beat.

Jade sat also looking on with concern whilst Kelly set up a small fire and put up the tents.

Several hours passed, Kelly looked over to Peter and Snivy. Peter hadnt moved from his pokemon. Kelly dipped a cup into the boiling tea on the fire and went over to him.

"Here.." She said, holding out the cup, "You havent moved for ages, you should have something to drink at least."

"Thanks." Peter said, accepting the cup from her. He glanced up at her and smiled.

"Sniiiiiiii.." Snivy groaned.

Peter looked down to see snivy rolling onto his back and stretching. His eye snapped open.

"Hey buddy!" Peter said softly, "How do you feel?"

"S-Snivy." Snivy said in response. He felt ashamed, he let Peter down and gave him all this trouble. His eye filled with tears.

"Hey," Peter said, holding him close to him, "No need for that, I'm so happy you feel better!"

"Snivy, sni, snivy.." Snivy responded, "Vi, snivy?"

Snivy felt sure Peter would be disappointed with him for loosing. He apologised to him deeply for the loss and for putting him through trouble to treat him again.

Peter hugged snivy, he didnt know what he was saying but at this moment the only thing that mattered was that snivy was ok.

Kelly reached down and stroked snivys back, admiring the strange "S" shaped yellow markings where his tail merged into his large three pronged leaf.

By now the twilight had really drawn in, the campfire lighting up its surroundings with dancing orange light. Setting snivy on the floor Peter reached into his bag and produced the tub of Pokemon food. Satisfied snivy was ok, Jade had turned in for the night leaving Peter and Kelly around the fire.

"You must be hungry." Peter said, tipping a carefully measured amount into the small dish.

Snivy nodded, wiping a tear from his eye. Peter nodded back and climbed to his feet. The two moved closer to the campfire and sat down. Peter handed snivy the bowl and watched the pokemon happily crunch a few of the nuggets.

"Here," Kelly said offering a china cup to Peter, "Its soup."

Peter took the cup appreciatively. "Thanks!" He said, and took a sip. He savoured the flavour, tomato and fresh basil.

Peter paused for a moment, looking around he noticed they were surrounded by thick bramble bushes, poking up between them were clumps strong stemmed nettle plants.

He looked over to see Kelly standing watching snivy happily crunching his dinner. She took a sip of her soup before sitting down next to Peter.

"Sorry." She said, looking into the cup.

"Why?" Peter turned and looked at her confused.

"Well, if I hadnt egged you and snivy on, perhaps we could have just ignored those guys," Kelly said, "I thought... I had assumed that they would use that Zubat. I should know better."

Peter thought for a moment, looking at snivy who was crunching his last nugget of food.

"It wasnt you." Peter said, "Snivy wanted to battle. It seemed almost like he wanted to prove something to me."

They watched as snivy fell back onto his tail rubbing his belly happily as he swallowed the last bite.

"I dunno, but he just looked so keen to battle." Peter continued, "So he decided, it wasnt you, dont worry."

Even after Peters words Kelly still felt a little responsible, but she had noticed snivy was very eager to stand up to them.

"I think snivy may have had enough of being bullied," She said thoughtfully, "His last trainer seemed like the type to push him too far, perhaps he wanted to show you he could defend himself?"

"Maybe, I dunno." Peter said, looking back over at his pokemon, "He doesnt need to prove anything to me like that, I dont care if he doesnt want to battle at all."

Kelly nodded, "If he does want to battle, you guys need to train hard so he figures out how to handle his blind side."

"Yeah," Peter said, recalling the battle, "Against India, the girl from before, she didnt exploit that weakness like Joy did."

"I dont think India was a serious trainer, she looked pretty green to me." Kelly said, taking another sip of the soup, "I underestimated that Joy girl."

Snivy picked up his bowl carefully and waddled over to Peter with it.

"Vi, snivy!" He said cheerfully, handing him the empty bowl.

"Glad you enjoyed it!" Peter replied, accepting the bowl he got up and after cleaning it, returned it to his bag. He watched as Kelly played with snivy, she was flipping up some berries and snivy was catching them in his mouth.

"Im going to turn in." Peter said, stepping over to them, "Snivy, you can play but dont stay up too late."

"Snivy!" Snivy said happily, turning back to Kelly he anticipated another berry.

"Cool," Kelly said, "See you in the morning then."

Peter ducked into his tent, leaving the entrance open just enough for snivy to squeeze through he tucked into his sleeping bag and closed his eyes.


	8. Chapter 8 - The forest Companion

Chapter 8 - The forest companion

Peter woke up to find snivy had cheekily snuggled into his sleeping bag with him. He carefully slid out of the sleeping bag, changed into some fresh clothes and grabbed his wash bag.

Stepping outside into the morning sunshine he started to brush his teeth. He looked around the camp, he was first up. He cleaned up and spent a few minutes gathering some more firewood from the nearly forest floor in order to re-stock the campfire which had kept in overnight. As he returned to the camp he noticed snivy had woken up and was looking out of their tent waiting for him to return.

Snivy stretched and rubbed his eyes, again forgetting about his eye patch. As he rubbed his left eye through the patch it stang sharply. He shuddered and tried to blink to clear the pain. It felt like his eye ball was rough and each time his eye closed it was like a hundred needles prickling his eye ball.

"Snii.." He called Peter desperately from the tent.

"Hey!" Peter replied cheerfully, "Good morning!"

"Sni, sni." Snivy said, waving his arms and pointing at his eye patch.

Peter noticed snivy was behaving strangely. He seemed to be blinking a lot and was gesturing at his face with his stubby arms.

"Hey, whats up buddy?" Peter said, walking over to snivy and crouching next to him.

"Vi." Snivy said desperately, the pain felt intense, he gestured the best he could to his eye.

"Ok, take it easy, let me take a look." Peter said, reaching out to his Pokemon.

He gently pulled the eyepatch away from snivy's eye and put it to one side. He noticed the inside was covered in some kind of mucus. He looked carefully at snivy's eye, it was completely white now although he could just make out a very faint outline of a pupil in the centre. The outside of the eye was very red and angry looking. He could see snivy's eye was watering but it was coming out as red drops.

"Lay on your side buddy and wait for me for one second." Peter said to his Pokemon, "And don't rub your eye, ok?" He said as he leaned back into the tent and rummaged in his bag.

Snivy lay on his side and waited for Peter. His eye felt like it was burning. It itched intensely. He couldnt take it anymore. He lifted his arm and bowed his head so he could reach, closing his eye he rubbed it. Rather than satisfaction he was greeted with a sharp pain. He let out a screech and he felt something gooey on his hand. He sat up and looked at it through his right eye... was that blood?

He felt his chest tighten, he started to freak out a little.

"Snivy, snivy snivy..." He said, getting breathless and climbing to his feet. He shuffled from foot to foot unsure what to do.

Hearing the commotion, Jade poked her head out of her tent.

"Hey, you okay snivy?" She called, "Hey, where is your eye patch?"

Snivy ran over to her, showing her his hands. Peter looked back out of the tent having found what he needed, he looked over to Jade and snivy.

"His eye looks agitated, I am guessing during the battle yesterday some dirt got under his eye patch." He surmised calmly,"I should have checked it," He said looking at snivy, "I'm sorry buddy, I should have checked and cleaned it before we slept."

Snivy ran back to Peter, showing him his hand.

"I know, I told you not to touch it." He said calmly, "Take it easy, I will make it better, I promise."

Snivy looked at him for a moment. Suddenly he got a safe feeling, yes, he knew Peter would fix it. He laid down on his side.

Peter sprayed a mixture into snvy's eye, he flinched and blinked rapidly but resisted the temptation to turn his head. Grabbing a small swab Peter cleaned the eye and treated it with some more spray.

"Alright, that should be a bit more comfortable." Peter said, "Just be still for 2 more minutes, you are doing really great snivy."

"Snii.." Snivy said nervously in response.

Peter cleaned then gently dressed the eye patch with some soft padding.

"Alright, this should feel much better." Peter said, replacing the patch over snivys eye.

Snivy sat up and looked around. His eye did feel better, but it still felt a little sore. He rubbed his right eye to clear his vision, being careful not to touch his patched left eye. He blinked carefully.

"Alright?" Peter asked his Pokemon.

"Snivy." Snivy replied, trying to smile. He stepped forward and hugged Peter.

"Cool," Peter smiled, "I'm sorry, I should have checked your eye. I let you down."

Snivy shook his head and snapped, "Snivy."

"Tell me right away if it is sore again, ok?" Peter said, stroking snivy on the head.

"Vi," Snivy replied, nodding.

By now Jade was up and had finished making the tea Peter had started. She brought a cup over for Peter.

"Hey Snivy," She said, handing the cup to Peter whilst looking at the Pokemon, "Are you feeling better now?"

"Snivy." He nodded politely.

"You know.." Peter began, "Snivy sounds so impersonal.."

"Snivy?" Snivy looked up at him quizzically.

"Well, how would you like to be called Nettle form now on?" He asked the Pokemon.

"Snivy?" Snivy asked still looking up at Peter, "sniiiiiivy.." He continued, thinking.

"Nettle?!" Jade said, "I love it! Why did you think of that?"

"It just came to me this morning." Peter replied, "I mean, he is more to me than just 'a snivy'... if you know what I mean?"

Jade grinned and nodded.

"So, Snivy... How about it, do you like 'Nettle'?" Peter asked.

'Nettle' Snivy thought. He liked the sound of that, what an interesting name.

"Snivy!" He said happily, hugging Peter, he looked up at Jade proudly and said, "Snivy, Snivy!" 'I'm Nettle'.

"Ha, good to meet you Nettle!" Jade said smiling.

Nettle stood proudly looking back at her. He smiled happily and nodded.

"Nettle huh?" Kelly said in the background, sipping some tea.

"Hey morning!" Jade said, glancing back at her sister.

"Morning," Peter said, "Yeah, what do you think?"

"Ha, I like it." She said, "distinctive. But what does 'Nettle' think of his new name?"

"Snivy!' Nettle jumped on the spot.

Kelly laughed, "Good, thats the most important opinion!"

The group continued talking as they prepared breakfast, with Nettle proudly taking centre stage.

It wasn't long before the group was back on the road to Nacreen City.

The group had been walking for about an hour when they entered some dense forest. The gravel path turned into a dusty track and the canopy of leaves above them blotted out the afternoon sunshine making the air feel cold.

"Its so dark.." Jade said nervously, glancing around.

Seeing her concern Peter turned his head to Nettle who was riding on his shoulder,

"Hey buddy," He whispered, "Why don't you go and look after Jade, she looks a bit scared of the forest."

"Vi!" Snivy agreed. He jumped down to the ground and ran over in front of Jade stopping her in her tracks.

"Vi, snivy!" Nettle said, looking up at her cheerfully.

"Hey, thanks Nettle." She said, picking him up and holding him tightly.

Peter and Kelly grinned and looked knowingly at each other. They both jumped when something rustled in the bushes very close by. Kelly discreetly moved closer to Peter, at the same moment Peter did the same and the two bumped into each other.

Jade clutched onto Nettle tightly as something moved again right by her.

"Something is following us.. " Jade whispered nervously.

"Lets just keep moving, looks like the forest starts to thin out ahead." Kelly said confidently, still walking close to Peter.

The bush rustled again.

"Lets pick up the pace, huh?" Peter suggested.

The others nodded and the trio started walking double time. Suddenly there was a noise like a branch cracking and the sound of something skidding on dirt behind them.

Nettle struggled to loosen Jade's tight embrace enough to shuffle up to be able to see over her shoulder.

"Snivy!" He said, looking behind her and pointing.

The group looked over their shoulders still moving quickly. Behind them, wrapped in vines and leaves was a Tepig stumbling over some sticks trying to keep up with them.

Noticing he had been seen the tepig tried desperately to hide its face in the mangle of vines and leaves that were stuck all over it.

"Hey, check it out." Kelly said, looking at the Pokemon.

"Oh my god, so cute!" Jade said, stepping back towards the tepig, "Whats wrong little guy?"

"Snivy?" Nettle asked the other pokemon.

Jade crouched put Nettle back on the ground gently. He immediately scurried over to the tepig and started to help it out of the tangle of vines.

"Pig.." It said, forlornly.

"Snivy!" Nettle replied, cheerfully as if to say 'Dont worry!'

Jade joined them and started to untangle tepigs legs form the rest of the vines.

"Were you afraid of the forest too?" She asked kindly.

The tepig nodded sadly. Jade gently picked up the tepig who didnt seem to put up any struggle and carried him as group walked out of the thick forest.

Nettle stepped out of the darkness and into the warm sunlight. He paused for a moment enjoying the feeling of the sun on the leaf on his tail. He sighed happily and he felt his body recharge from the sunlight.

"We made it tepig." Jade said, putting down the small pig.

"Tepig!" It exclaimed, thankfully.

"Snivy!" Nettle turned to greet the other pokemon.

As the two pokemon conversed, Peter stepped over and couched down next to them. Nettle looked at Peter and pointed at tepig. At that moment tepig sneezed and jets of steam came from his nostrils.

"Huh.." Peter said, stroking Nettle on the head, "Is it ok if I take a look at you, tepig?"

Tepig stepped forwards. The snivy called 'Nettle' had explained that his trainer was a doctor and could help him to feel better.

Peter ran his hands over tepigs coat. It was matted and had many seeds embedded in it. He looked like he had had a hard life so far, but he didnt see any too serious issues.

"You seem to be ok," Peter said, completing his physical examination "but perhaps you could use a bath!"

Tepig shook his head and turned away, "Teeepiiiggg!" it shouted and blew a huge jet of steam from his nose. Nettle pointed again and jumped up and down.

"Huh.. I see.. " Peter said, "That was your ember huh?"

"Pig." Tepig nodded sadly.

Peter put down his bag and rummaged inside, pulling out his notebook. Scanning the pages he found his notes on fire type pokemon.

"Whats wrong?" Jade asked, crouching down and stroking tepig.

"I'd say he had a cold!" Peter exclaimed, still scanning his notes.

Kelly looked on taking a drink of water. She looked over towards the forest and noticed some berries growing on a small bush.

Peter began rummaging in his bag and pulled out some herbs and a small gas stove. He tipped some water into a small pot and put it on the heat adding the herbs carefully.

Kelly returned munching on some of the berries. She handed some to Nettle who happily accepted them. He took some of his berries to Jade and Tepig and shared them whilst he munched the rest like popcorn whilst watching Peter making the potion.

"Here."Peter offered the potion to the tepig. The fire pig stepped forwards and allowed Peter to gently feed it the medicine.

"How is it tepig?" Jade asked.

Tepig swallowed the last of the mixture and turned to her, with its tongue poking out.

"That bad huh?" Jade laughed.

"It may taste bad, but you'll thank me later." Peter laughed, cleaning and packing his things away.

Jade offered the tepig some of the berries. It cautiously at them out of her hand.

"Tepig!" It exclaimed and jumped onto Jade's knee. She hugged it before quickly pushing back,

"Ok, you do need a wash!" She exclaimed.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a hairbrush. She gently brushed the tepigs fir. The tepig seemed to enjoy this and closed it eyes.

Nettle noticed this and started stroking the tepig as well.

"Ha, those guys seem to be getting along really well!" Kelly laughed.

Peter zipped up his bag and watched Jade and the pokemon as he stood up next to Kelly.

"There," Kelly said, picking up tepig and holding him out in front of her, "All done!" She stroked tepigs fur, noticing how smooth it was now. Tepig closed its eyes and smiled at her appreciatively.

Seeing Peter was back up Nettle jumped back up onto Peters shoulder.

"Well, shall we get going?" Kelly asked, "We can still make it to Nacreen before dark if we leave now."

"Ready when you are." Peter said nodding.

"Snivy!" Nettle added.

Jade got to her feet and set tepig down on the floor.

"Well, nice to meet you tepig!" Jade said, "You just be safe - stay out of the forest!"

"Teeepig?" The fire pig tilted its head and looked at Jade quizzically.

"Ready!" Jade said looking over to Peter and Kelly.

The group set off again. Tepig stood and watched them start to walk off, before running after them.

"Tepig, tepig, tepig, tepig!" It cried as it made each stride.

Jade turned around just in time for tepig to jump up into her arms.

"Teeepiigggg!' It exclaimed as it landed.

Jade staggered backwards before steadying herself.

"Looks like Tepig likes you Jade!" Peter laughed.

Jade looked down to tepig in her arms and smiled, stroking its head she asked, "Is that right tepig? Do you want to come with us?"

"Piiig!" Tepig nodded.

Jade looked up grinning at Kelly, "So, can we take him with us?"

"Well, what about cha-" Kelly was cut off.

"He will be fine! Come on! Plleeaaaase?" Jade begged.

"What about what?" Peter enquired.

"Well you see... Jade already has a pokemon." Kelly said, "Even though she is not old enough to be a trainer, so I am looking after it for her. In just a week or so, she will turn 10 and she can collect her Pokedex and pokeballs."

"I see... so whats the concern, does this pokemon of hers not like fire types like tepig?" Peter asked.

"Well, not exactly." Kelly started, "Its a bit of a story.." "You can tell me whilst we are walking then?" Peter suggested.

Kelly tightened the straps on her backpack, "Alright then." She said confidently.

The group set off down the path. The sky had turned a deep orange with whisps of clouds hanging in the air. The sun loomed large just peeking over the horizon.

"It all goes back to when Jade was really young." Kelly started, glancing over at Peter, "You see, we were out at a family picnic and Jade, loving pokemon so much went chasing off after some deeling."

"It was an eevee!" Jade snapped.

"Eevee then," Kelly corrected, leaning close to Peter and covering the side of her mouth with her hand added, "It was a deerling."

Jade shot an evil glance back before turning and walking on, stroking the tepig in her arms.

"Anyway, she ended up chasing this pokemon into a Beedrill nest." Kelly continued on, "And those guys were not particularly happy to see her."

"I bet.." Peter said, "So what did you do?"

"I didnt do anything," Kelly continued on, "By the time we had worked out where she had gone it was all over.."

"So what happened!" Peter said, impatiently.

"This wild charmander had come out of the forest and fought off the beedrill." Kelly said, smiling, "It used its ember attack to drive them off."

"Wow, cool!" Peter said, "It must have seen something in Jade?"

"Well, when we got there it wanted to defend Jade from us as well. It took nearly half an hour for us... well mainly Jade to convince it we were friends." Kelly said, "And when we were going to leave it followed Jade closely, protecting her."

"Oh I see.. interesting." Peter said, scratching his chin.

"When we got home and went in the house, it wouldn't leave. It stayed outside. Jade didnt like to leave it so she went out and stayed with it." Kelly said, "Eventually I gave her one of my pokeballs and it allowed itself to be captured by Jade right away."

"So, charmander is very protective of Jade - so you're worried he would "protect" her against tepig too?" Peter asked.

"Well, you see," Kelly said scratching the back of her head, "I decided to help Jade train charmander to help him to learn that he didnt need to always be in this protect mode."

She continued on as Peter nodded.

"So we trained with him every day, it was really hard work but soon he started to accept people getting close to Jade." Kelly smiled again, "And then he evolved into Charmelion and he got very powerful, but he kept responding well to the training. So when we started our trip to Unova he came along with us." Kelly paused for a moment, her mood changed.

"When we first arrived, charmelion was being so good. In fact Jade had him walking with her no problem," Kelly remembered, "We went straight to professor... Juniper?"

"Yeah.." Peter nodded.

"We went straight to see her to get my new pokedex and for Jade to update her pokegear. When we got there there was this boy choosing his starter..."

"Ah.." Peter said frowning.

"No, no!" Kelly continued, "We watched with the professor as he picked this adorable Oshawott. Charmelion seemed to be fine, he even went with Jade to talk with the boy whilst I went to gather some supplies from the professor."

Peter noticed Jade had started to pick up her pace.

"Well, he challenged Jade and charmelion to a battle to test his new oshawott's abilities." Kelly continued on, "I had told Jade not to battle with charmelion until she could grow as a trainer... you need to be strong to control him..."

"I dont wanna hear this.. " Jade said and continued to pull away from the pair.

Peter looked at Kelly concerned.

"Well, when I was with the professor we heard some shouting, so we went outside to check what was going on.. " Kelly paused and bowed her head, "Charmelion was mercilessly beating this poor oshawott... Jade and the boy kept on calling it to stop but charmelion ignored them both. In the end, I used my lapras to stop him, before..." She stopped.

"I see... " Peter said, "Was the oshawott okay?"

"We used all our medicine on that oshawott, it was the last the professor had... its why we didnt have any left when you asked for some when snivy..."

"Sniiiiivy?" Nettle shot Kelly an evil glance.

"Sorry, when Nettle got hurt." Kelly corrected herself.

"I see..." Peter said.

"Viii.." Gasped Nettle in unison.

"The oshawott did come through, he was going to take it right to the Pokemon centre after we left. I hope it wasnt affected too much..."

"Yeah, " Peter said, "Its first battle for that to happen, even if it is physically ok it might have some psychological issues with battling after that. "

Kelly frowned, "So you see, thats why I am nervous about letting Jade keep that cute tepig."

"How about if she used that tepig as her starter?" Peter asked, "You said she is nearly ready, she could use that tepig to learn and grow as a trainer - get some experience."

"I guess..." Kelly started, "she could build her confidence with a pokemon like tepig who would be more obedient."

"Exactly." Peter nodded.

"One problem." Kelly said, "I have used all my pokeballs."

"Dont worry, how about Jade use one of mine and later we can transfer it to her?" Peter asked.

"You'd do that?" Kelly asked, "but what if you need it?"

"Nah, its the least I can do after all you have done for me."Peter said.

"Vi, snivy!" Nettle exclaimed cheerfully.

"And for Nettle!" Peter quickly added.

"Thanks." Kelly said, patting Peter on the back.

Peter reached around to the back of his belt and pulled out a Pokeball.

"Hey Jade!" Peter called waving the Pokeball.

Jade turned around and looked at him.

"Take this!" He called.

Jade walked over to him and looked at the ball quizzically.

"He wants to catch tepig for you." Kelly said rolling her eyes.

Jade's face lit up, she grabbed the pokeball from Peter,

"Wow thanks so much!" She exclaimed happily.

She looked down to tepig who was looking up at her excitedly.

"Here tepig!" She said, holding the pokeball to him.

Kelly and Peter watched in amazement as the tepig nudged the ball with its snout and disappeared in a beam of red energy. Jade smiled and handed the pokeball to Peter.

"You keep it." Peter said grinning, "We can sort things out later, lets consider tepig your pokemon."

"Really, thanks so much!" Jade said hugging Peter. Nettle clapped his hands happily seeing how pleased Jade was.

Jade let tepig out of his pokeball and hugged him.

The group travelled on along the path. Whilst the humans talked amongst themselves, Nettle and tepig were also catching up and finding out about one another walking side by side.

As the group crested the brow of a hill they passed by a sign marked Nacreen City, looking ahead they were greeted with the sight of a small city surrounded by lush green forest. By now the sun had almost disappeared entirely and the cold of night was sweeping in.

Jade took her Pokegear from her pocket and guided the group from the path up to the Nacreen Pokemon centre. They sleepily pushed through the glass double doors as the five tone tune played.

"Welcome to the Nacreen City Pokemon Centre!" Nurse Joy exclaimed from behind the main counter.

"Audino!" Her audino echoed.

"Hi Nurse Joy!" Kelly said wearily, "Do you have any rooms where we could stay the night?"

Nurse Joy smiled and showed the group to two available rooms.

"If you need anything else, let me know!" Nurse Joy said, leaving the group in the corridor outside.

"Thanks!" They said in unison.

"Goodnight!" Peter said, bowing.

"Thanks, Peter." Jade said hugging him again, taking Peter by surprise.

"Night!" Kelly said, slapping Peter on the back.

Nettle and Tepig said goodnight to each other and followed their trainers into their rooms for the night.

Peter shut the door and looked over to see Nettle struggling up onto the bed. He looked really tired after walking most of the way with tepig.

"Dont fall asleep yet!" Peter called, stepping over to sit next to him on the bed, "lets just check your eye first okay?"

Nettle grumbled but sat up straight and allowed Peter to check him over. The red swelling had gone, leaving just white with the faint pupil.

"Alright buddy," Peter said, cleaning the eye patch with some spray, "Looks ok. How do you feel?"

"Sniiii..." Nettle replied with a yawn. His eyes closed.

"Alright, how about we leave this off tonight?" Peter said, placing the eye patch on the bedside table next to the lamp, "I think the air would probably do some good anyway - just remember no scratching!" He warned.

"Sni, sni.." Nettle replied, waving his arm.

Peter chuckled and climbed into bed himself. He closed his eyes for a moment reflecting on the days events.


	9. Chapter 9 - Kelly vs Lenora

_Note: Quick revision for now to this chapter to address a glaring error._

Chapter 9 - Kelly vs Lenora

The sunlight streaming in the window woke Nettle from his dream. He slowly opened his eye and looked around slightly dazed. Peter was still asleep, Nettle could see his arm outside of the covers. Nettle rolled onto his back and stretched, doing his best to suppress a yawn which caused him to emit a squeaking noise. He glanced over at Peter, still asleep.

He got up onto his feet and struggled down from the bed. He felt a little hungry, he thought for a moment looking around the room. He saw the fruit bowl on the table near the window, but he didnt feel like any of the fruit inside. Then he remembered he had seen Peter every morning eating this white paste from a tube. Peter ate this stuff at least twice a day so it must be good Nettle thought. He scampered over to the washroom where he had seen Peter put the stuff down last. Using his vines he pulled himself up onto the counter next to the washbasin, looking around he spotted the small tube next to the cold tap.

He picked it up and turned it around in his hands. There was a picture of a man and a woman smiling on the tube, each of them held a small comb with a long handle. They looked very happy, affirming Nettles conclusion this stuff must be delicious.

He fiddled with the cap until it flicked open. Without hesitation Nettle raised it to his mouth and squeezed the tube. A jet of the paste sprayed into his mouth and up his nose. He mouth turned ice cold and filled with foam, he sneezed spraying white foam onto the mirror in front of him and causing him to loose his balance. He staggered backwards grabbing Peters washbag to balance himself but to no avail. Nettle and the contents of the washbag fell to the floor, the tube of white paste hitting Nettle on the head as he landed.

"Snivy." He said angrily, picking up the tube and throwing it to the ground in disgust.

He rubbed his head and looked around the room to see all of Peters things scattered over the floor. He hurried to gather each item and carefully placed them back into the washbag. He found a metal T shaped thing and a bottle with a smiling man wiping some of the white paste off his face with another T shaped thing.

"Pffh." Nettle blew a raspberry at the man and put the bottle and the T shaped thing into the washbag.

He picked up a comb, trying it on his head as he had seen others do before. It tickled a little but he didnt really see the usefulness of this object. He placed it carefully back into the washbag.

Realising Peter could be up at any second he quickly gathered the rest of the items and pushed them into the bag. Using his vines he lifted it up onto the counter.

He carefully peaked around the door into the main room. Peter looked like he was still asleep.

Nettle returned to the sink. He looked into the mirror noticing he still had loads of the white foam on his face, he used Peters towel to remove it. He then used it to wipe the mirror too, smearing the white specks all over the glass. Satisfied with his work he climbed down from the sink and walked casually into the main room. Maybe fruit is better he thought, he couldn't understand why anyone would eat that white foam.

Peter woke up to see Nettle sitting on the table next to the fruit bowl munching on an apple.

"Hey, morning!" Peter said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Vi, snivy!" Nettle replied through a mouth full of apple, waving.

Peter climbed out of bed and went into the washroom to brush his teeth. Noticing the devastation he turned and poked his head around the door. He noticed Nettle had vanished, but a strange snivy shaped figure was now under the covers looking left and right.

Peter just grinned and continued with his routine, brushing his teeth and washing. Once he was done he cleaned the washroom mirror and sink before returning to the main bedroom area.

"You tried to brush your teeth as well?" He asked.

The figure under the covers nodded.

Peter pulled the covers away to see Nettle sitting nervously.

"I guess you didnt like the taste?" Peter laughed.

"Vi..vi." Nettle replied shaking his head and looking down.

"So I guess you wont try that again huh?" Peter asked.

"Vi vi." Came the response.

Peter laughed again and packed the rest of his stuff into his bag. He carefully put Nettles eye patch back on and patted him on the head.

"Come on," He said standing up, "I bet Kelly and Jade are waiting for us."

Nettle smiled and followed Peter down to the restaurant area, but neither Kelly or Jade were there.

Peter shrugged and put his stuff down at one of the tables, he helped Nettle climb up and put out his dish with some Pokemon food. Peter gathered some food from the buffet and went back to sit with his Pokemon to eat and wait for the others.

By the time Jade and Kelly showed up they had both almost finished their breakfast. Peter looked up from his cereal, Kelly's usual perfectly groomed hair was all sticking up to one side and her white dress looked kind of creased. He eyes looked weary with some black lines showing underneath. Jade was slouching down, her short blonde hair was also frizzy and sticking up and she too had black circles around her eyes. Playing around their feet tepig looked full of energy and ready to go.

"Erm," Peter began, "Bad night?"

"He..." Jade struggled to get out the words, "He snores..."

They trudged over to the table and flopped down.

Peter got up and fetched them some coffee and a bowl of food. Upon his return he also poured some of Nettles pokemon food for tepig, who ate a few pieces before deciding grass type food wasnt for him.

"Thanks." Kelly said, accepting the coffee from Peter and taking a gulp.

Peter watched as Nettle jumped down and helped tepig finish the dish of food.

"No worries," He smiled, "This coffee should help get you going."

"So tired.." Jade said, her head flopping down into her arms on the table.

"So why didnt you put tepig back in his pokeball?" Peter asked puzzled.

"We tried!" Kelly snapped, "He kept running away and hiding, like we were playing a game!"

"UUuuggghhhhhhh" Jade sighed.

"I guess you have a challenge for your first pokemon then Jade!"Peter joked, "He seems full of energy!"

Jade just sighed again without looking up. Peter laughed again and looked down to see Nettle almost finishing his second dish of food.

"Thats enough!" Peter said snatching the dish, "You'll get fat."

"Snivy." Nettle complained as Peter tipped the remaining food back into the tub and screwed on the lid.

"You going to challenge the Nacrene gym today?" Peter asked Kelly.

"Thats the plan." Kelly replied, taking another sip of coffee and rubbing her eyes with her free hand, "...That was the plan."

Jade groaned again, still not moving.

"Did you think about strategy?" Peter asked interested.

"Yeah yeah, all taken care of." Kelly said confidently, "I have a great strategy for normal types. You going to come along and watch?"

"You bet!" Peter exclaimed, "That battle at Striaton was great!"

"Good," Kelly replied, "Maybe you will get the chance to see some of my other Pokemon." She winked.

The group finished their breakfast and headed to the Nacrene Museum - the location of the city gym.

Stopping outside the large entranceway Peter checked out a poster advertising the latest museum exhibits. There was a Cofagrigus display and a skeleton of the largest Dragonite in the region along with some other Pokemon anatomy sections.

"Wow!" Peter beamed, "I cant wait to get a look at this stuff!"

"Viiiii..." Nettle gasped looking at the pictures.

Kelly pushed through the doors, holding them open for Jade behind her carrying her tepig. Noticing the girls were continuing inside, Peter quickly dodged through the closing doors behind them.

They were greeted by a short brown haired man in a grey suit.

"Im Hawes," He began, peering over the top of his half moon glasses, "I'm the curator of the Nacrene City Museum, how may I help you?"

"Um, I have come for a gym battle.." Kelly said, scratching the back of her head.

"Ah!" Hawes eyes seem to light up, "Then you are looking for Lenora! Please right this way!" He beckoned, spinning on his heel and striding off down the corridor.

The group followed him into a small office room. Siting at a desk was a tall dark woman with long, thick green hair. She was busy writing something in journal of some kind.

Hawes coughed, "Excuse me dear?" He asked.

The woman looked up form her writing and looked at Hawes expectantly.

"Yes?" She asked.

"These folks have come for a gym battle!" He said proudly.

"Oh they have?" Lenora said, pushing back her chair and standing up, "And who is the challenger?"

She looked at Peter in his white doctors coat with Nettle peaking over his shoulder, Jade slowly stroking the tepig in her arms and finally at Kelly who was standing proudly next to Hawes her determined gaze fixed on the gym leader.

"Haha," Lenora laughed looking at Kelly, "Then it must be you."

Kelly nodded, "Im Kelly and this is my sister Jade, "Kelly glanced over to her sister, "We are from Cerulean City in the Kanto region."

"Im Peter, a Pokemon Doctor!" Peter added.

"Snivy!" Nettle exclaimed.

"Then come with me." Lenora said, leading the group out of the office. They walked along a small corridor and up a short staircase before coming to a large steel door. Lenora put her hand onto a computer pad and a green stripe swiped down the screen. The door whirred into life and slid open. It stopped with a metallic clang and the group stepped inside.

"This is the museums private library!" Hawes said, excitedly.

"Only special guests and gym challengers are allowed entry." Lenora said, "Its a privilege to even step foot in this room."

Peter gasped, looking around he saw so many books on Pokemon biology. He resisted the temptation to run over and read them all.

"Kelly, would you like to learn something about the history of the Unova region?" She asked walking over to a bookshelf on the far wall, "You can choose any book you like, but I suggest you start with something like this one." She tapped her finger on a blue book in the centre of the shelf.

"Hm.." Kelly said out loud, scanning the shelves. There was so much to choose from, perhaps she should focus on something that would help her with normal type strategy. She looked up to see Lenora grinning at her.

"Start with this one huh?" Kelly said finally, reaching for the book Lenora had pointed to before.

Kelly grabbed the top of the book, it tilted forwards and sprang back into the shelf. The bookshelf slid to one side revealing a staircase going down into a basement.

Peter looked slightly disappointed that a row of biology books dissapeared behind the wall.

"A good choice, and very direct." Lenora commented, starting down the staircase.

"This was a test?" Peter asked and they stepped down.

"Yes, Lenora can get a feel for the type of trainer the challenger is," Hawes said, "Some make their own choice of book, some choose small books so they can read them fast.."

"And some go directly to the book they are shown!" Peter smiled.

"Not exactly." Lenora stopped him, "Kelly took her time to review other books on the shelf as well, I noticed her scanning the titles of each one before she chose the one I pointed out. She is very thorough but she is not afraid to make a decision on something."

Peter nodded, Lenora was a very wise gym leader. Peter imagined the battle should be spectacular.

The group stepped of the final step and into a huge aicraft hangar sized room. The battle area was composed of a sandy substance and was marked with the familiar white lines. There was a ground level viewing area for guests with a small railing. Jade and Peter stepped over to the viewing platform.

"Alright, Hawes, would you like to tell the challenger how this works?" Lenora said confidently.

"Of course!" Hawes exclaimed, "This will be a 2 on 2 pokemon battle, the battle will be over whenever both of either sides Pokemon are unable to battle. Pokemon may be substituted at any time during the battle."

Kelly paused for a moment, "Got it!" She replied.

Lenora nodded and the two trainers took their place on the battlefield.

"Let me show you the Pokemon I will be using." Lenora said throwing up 2 Pokeballs.

The one on the left popped open to reveal a watchog, its brown and yellow striped body seemed to shine brightly. It had 2 large eyes and a pair of huge gnawing teeth. Its stood upright on its two hind legs and used a large tail with a tuft of fur at the end for balance.

The Pokeball which fell to the right popped open in unison and a herdier jumped to the ground. The medium sized dog pokemon had a dark upper body with light brown legs. Its cream fir on its face created a moustached look. Its stubby tail swayed side to side expectantly.

"Alright," Kelly said thinking, "Pidove, I need your help!"

Kelly threw her pokeball up high and the small pidgeon Pokemon appeared in a flash of red energy. It swooped down elegantly and landed in front of Kelly. It looked around of a moment before pecking at the floor.

Peter put Nettle down and rummaged in his bag finding his camera. He removed the lens cap and zoomed in to the battle. Jade put tepig down next to Nettle and leaned forwards on the railing.

"Interesting.." Lenora said, "Then I will start with you watchog." She returned Herdier and tucked his Pokeball into her poket.

"Let the battle begin!" Hawes called from the sideline.

"Alright, pidove!" Kelly shouted, "fly up into the air and use air slash!"

Pidove gracefully took to the sky and flapped its wings violently causing visible blades of air to appear and stream towards watchog below.

"Dodge it watchog and counter with thunderbolt!" Lenora called.

The meerkat like Pokemon dove to the side, avoiding the air slash. It crouched forwards onto all fours and charged itself for a thunderbolt. Jets of yellow energy emerged from the creatures tail and hit pidove, sending it circling into the ground.

"Pidove!" Kelly called out concerned, she looked on as the bird struggled back to its feet, "Can you go on Pidove?"

"Dove - dove!" It called back determinedly.

"Awesome! Then get back into the air and counter attack with quick attack!" Kelly called.

The bird circled high up into the air, then flew down at speed towards the watchog.

"Watchog, use lowkick!" Lenoa called as the bird approached.

The watchog stood high on its hind legs, watching the bird get closer. At the perfect moment it circled on the spot producing a well executed roundhouse kick knocking the bird into the far wall.

Kelly looked on clenching her fists. None of her attacks were getting through. She watched as Pidove again staggered to its feet.

"Pidove, return." Kelly shouted holding up its pokeball. The pigeon pokemon disappeared in a stream of red light, "Come out Poliwrath!"

Peters ears pricked up at the sound of a new pokemon. He zoomed in his camera and watched as the fighting and water type pokemon emerged from its Pokeball. Its menacing eyes glared at the watchog across the battleground, its large round body swayed from side to side as its large arms moved left and right. Its distinctive white belly with its black spiral swirl was offset by the dark blue of its back and arms.

"Alright Poliwrath, "Kelly called, "use dynamic punch!"

"Dodge it watchog!" Lenora called.

The poliwrath moved swiftly, much faster than Peter had seen others moving, it was clear Kelly had spent a lot of time with this Pokemon improving its speed and teaching it powerful moves.

Watchog rolled to one side, but poliwrath anticipated this and landed a powerful punch to its opponents side. Watchog gasped, winded and staggered to one side.

"Watchog, use thunderbolt!" Lenora called, seeing how close the poliwrath was to her pokemon.

The watchog, still holding its side, charged a stream of electric energy and fired it at the large pokemon directly in front of it. The lightning bolts of energy enveloped the other pokemon which staggered backwards but stayed upright.

"Shake it off Poliwrath and use dynamic punch again!" Kelly called.

Poliwraths huge bulking body pounded forwards and delivered another hammer blow to the watchog which staggered backwards and fell onto its back.

"Watchog, return!" Lenora shouted, "Come out herdier!"

The dog pokemon appeared on he battlefield, fired up it growled at the poliwrath in front of it.

"Herdier, use roar now!" Lenora shouted throwing her arm up and pointing to poliwrath.

Herdier stepped forwards confidently and let out a fearsome roar. Poliwrath staggered backwards and in a flash of red energy returned to his pokeball and pidove appeared on the battlefield.

"Roar forces you to switch pokemon!" Lenora called, swiftly she pulled watchogs pokeball back and called, "herdier return, come out watchog and use mean look!"

Kelly took a breath to speak but it was too late, Lenora had swapped Pokemon and the watchog had already started the move.

Pidove landed on the ground and looked around it. It felt a million eyes watching it and a constricted feeling.

"And mean look has stopped me from changing out Pidove for Poliwrath." Kelly muttered.

"Watchog, use thunderbolt!" Lenora called.

Watchog still bruised from the poliwraths attacks held its left side, but continued with the move zapping a stream of electricity towards the bird.

"Pidove, fly up and use air cutter!"Kelly called, a split second too late as the thunderbolt struck the birds left wing, pinning it to the ground.

It screeched in pain and slammed back into the ground.

"Oh no!" Kelly said desperately.

Jade gasped looking on, he had never seen her sister have so little options in a battle. Lenora seemed to have her pinned down.

Pidove lay motionless. Worried it had fainted Kelly took a step forwards when suddenly the bird was enveloped in a white ora. The white light got brighter and brighter forcing everyone to look away.

Peter frantically clicked the shutter on his camera, hoping to catch the process of the Pokemon evolution. Jade used her hand to cover her eyes but trying to watch the events through her fingers.

On the floor beside them Nettle and tepig struggled to look, in awe of the events taking place.

In a cloud of dust and sand the light cleared and revealed a large bird. In place of pidove now stood a female tranquill.

"Oh my!" Lenora exclaimed looking at the newly evolved bird.

"You evolved!" Kelly cheered.

Tranquill looked back at her and called out. Kelly could see a new determination in its eyes. Kelly quickly consulted her Pokedex checking for any move changes.

Jade clapped as Peter kept taking pictures on the sideline.

"Tranquill, fly up and use your air cutter!" Kelly called.

Tranquill flapped its wings and soared up into the rafters, it dove down a few meter's before hovering, using its wings to create sharp streams of air which flew towards watchog below.

"Dodge it!" Lenora called to her Pokemon.

Watchog was still holding his side, he looked up and saw the bird begin its attack. Waiting for the right moment it dropped to one knee and rolled. The pokemon had failed to take into account his injury from the poliwrath's attack which had slowed it down considerably. The air cutter attack struck the watchog on its back as it ducked down. The gusts of air were much more powerful than pidove's attack and knocked the pokemon onto its knees.

"Follow up with tackle, quickly!" Kelly called.

Lenora held up watchogs pokeball as if to return it, she opened her mouth to speak just as tranquill made contact, knocking watchog up into the air before sending him spinning back down to the ground with a thump.

Watchog lay motionless for several seconds.

"Watchog is unable to battle," Hawes said.

"Herdier, its all up to you!" Lenora called, thowing up the dog pokemon's pokeball.

Herdier appeared in a flash of red energy onto the battlefield in front of her. Kelly returned tranquill and brought poliwrath bak out onto the field.

"I wonder why Lenora didnt call back watchog?" Jade said, puzzled.

"Maybe she was caught off guard by pidove suddenly evolving?" Peter suggested, but he doubted that someone as experienced as Lenora would allow herself to be distracted so easily.

"Herdier, use shadow ball!" Lenora called out.

The dog like pokemon to two steps forwards whilst focusing all its energy to the tip of its nose, quickly 4 dark purple orbs started to form in front of it. Letting out a battle cry herdier flung the objects towards poliwrath.

"Dodge it and get in close!" Kelly ordered.

Poliwrath side stepped the first 2 orbs, but this put it right into the path of the others. Off balance it was not able to swerve to avoid the remaining attacks which struck on its chest. It staggered backwards silently before digging in its heels and focusing a steely gaze on its opponent once more.

"Poliwrath, if they wont let us get close, use focus blast!" Kelly shouted sounding really energised.

The large toad created its own ball of energy in front of it, glowing a light blue with a bright white orb pulsing in the centre. Jumping into the air it used its full might to toss the ball towards the dog pokemon.

"Use protect!" Lenora called out.

A pale blue field seemed to surround the dog pokemon as the focus blast approached. Herdier stood its ground watching the attack come racing towards it. It struck the protect screen herdier had raised, the impact of the attack knocking herdier backwards. The energy ball itself however, dissipated harmlessly against the protect barrier.

"Poliwrath, now!" Kelly shouted excitedly, "Use dynamic punch!"

Lenora looked through the dust cloud of the previous attack to see poliwath had closed the gap whilst herdier had been engaged with the focus blast. Before she could call any command the toad had delivered a full power punch to the dog pokemon, knocking it spinning into the far wall. It slid down the wall and hit the ground in a cloud of dust.

Peter gasped at the power of Kellys pokemon, he glanced at Jade to see her grinning knowingly.

Herdier struggled to its feet. It took 3 steps forwards towards the battlefield before collapsing.

"Herdier is unable to battle!" Hawes called, "That makes Kelly the challenger the winner!"

Kelly looked out over the battlefield, her heart pounding in her chest. The allowed herself a slight grin as poliwrath came stomping back over to her.

"You did so great poliwrath!" Kelly said, "Take a good rest."

Lenora returned Herdier to its pokeball. Looking up she noticed Hawes readying the basic badge.

"That was quite a battle." Lenora said, "You have some very powerful pokemon and you used their type advantage to its best effect." She nodded at Kelly, turning to take a small box form Hawes.

"This is the basic badge." She said, handing Kelly the box.

Kelly bowed slightly and took the box.

"Thank you." She said smiling.

From the sidelines Nettle and tepig were cheering whilst Peter was lining up another shot with his camera. Jade came running over to her sister to check out her new badge.

The group followed Lenora and Hawes back up through library and into the museum.

"Thank you again." Kelly said, shaking Lenora's hand.

Lenora smiled and nodded before returning to her office.

The group moved through the museum, taking in the exhibits. Peter rushed to the Cofagrigus display. He had never seen a cofagrigus outside of pictures in books. This strange and mysterious ghost pokemon was quite fascinating. As he approached the display Nettle dropped off of Peters shoulder and hid behind his legs. Peter took time to read each and every word on the display, examining the replica as closely as he could. He didnt even notice Nettle shivering, clutching on to his trouser leg in fear of the weird pokemon.

Jade looked up from a display showing an incident which happened in the museum with a Yamask mask. She glanced over at Peter and noticed Nettle shivering in fear.

"Hey!" She called across, "Nettle, you can come with us!"

"Tepig!" Tepig snorted and blew some flame from its nose accidentally.

Nettle turned and ran to them, gladly taking them up on their offer. He jumped up into Jades arms and looked into the display cabinet.

"Vi, snivy!" He said thanking her.

The display cabinet had a story about some pokemon trainers who helped to reunite a Yamask with its mask. There was a picture of Hawes and Lenora with some other trainers. Nettle yawned and closed his eye.

Peter finished his reading and looked over to his shoulder,

"Wow, what a weird pokemon huh Nettle..." Noticing his pokemon wasnt there he looked down at his feet, "Nettle?"

Peter stopped and scanned the room. He saw Kelly looking at a large Dragonite skeleton, and Jade looking at another display with tepig restlessly trotting in circles around her feet. They were the only ones in the room.

"Guys, have you seen Nettle?" Peter said, glancing first at Kelly, then to Jade.

Jade turned around and laughed. Nettle was now fast asleep. Peter walked over to her, exchanging Nettle into his arms.

"He was so scared!" Jade said, "He was shaking - that cofagrigus thing really freaked him out, so I asked him if he wanted to hang out with us."

"Oh I see!" Peter said, scratching his head, "I was so engrossed I didn't even notice. Urgh thats so terrible of me!"

"Nah, all good!" Jade shrugged, "We're a team!"

Peter smiled and looked down at he little snivy in his arms. He was snoring softly - probably not even aware he had been swapped from Jade to Peter.

Kelly strolled over, slapping Peter on the back.

"Finished?" She asked, "Cause' I'm hungry!"

Jade shrugged again, "Yeah, I think so."

Peter nodded, "Yep I think so, wish I could take a few of those books to read from upstairs though!"

"Come on bookworm." Kelly said, pulling his arm towards the exit.

The team left the museum and stepped out into the fresh evening air. Its getting dark early today Peter thought, glancing up to the sky. He noticed that grey clouds were covering the entire sky, in the distance he could see some very dark rainclouds heading towards them.

They walked past some brightly coloured houses and onto a market street. The vendors were busy packing away their things leaving nothing but empty stalls.

"Next left." Jade said, glancing up form her pokegear.

Tepig felt his belly complain, he looked up at Jade from his position running alongside her.

"Tepig?" He asked, solemnly.

"Almost there Tepig!" Jade replied, pausing to scoop him up.

Tepig smiled and let his mind wonder to all the delicious food he planned to taste.

As they group rounded the corner they were presented with a large red and white building with large signs in the windows advertising various kinds of noodles and soups.

The group pushed through the large glass doors which swang shut behind them. The restaurant was almost full save for 2 tables at the very back of the room.

"Looks like a buffet style." Peter said, walking over to a long glass shrouded counter. Behind the bar chef's were tossing vegetables in huge wok's over hot flames. Every now and then a burst of flame would erupt from one of the woks as it was tossed.

The sounds woke Nettle from his sleep. He slowly opened his eye yawning slightly. He had been out of the sun all day and he felt his energy was low. He looked around and saw the food bar, leaning forwards in Peters arms to get a better look.

"vi, vi vi!" He shouted, tugging on Peters shirt and pointing at a large ice cream display at the end of the counter.

"Not today buddy!" Peter said down to him, "Its not good for you to have so much sweet food."

Nettle drooped his head and sighed.

Peter ordered a bowl of large thick noodles and fried vegetables, seeing the food served to Peter Jade quickly ordered the same. Kelly ordered some delicate thin noodles in a hot spicy broth.

As they slid their trays along to the cashier, Nettle again pointed at the ice cream.

"Seriously, no Nettle." Peter said firmly, "No more ice cream, at least not today anyway."

Nettle folded his arms and huffed disappointedly.

They slid past the ice cream to the rest of the desert section, at the end was a section marked 'Pokemon food.'

Peter slid over to the Pokemon section and looked through the glass. There at the very top of the display was a green covered pastry. It has a small wooden stick in it with the words 'For Grass' written on a sign at the top of the stick. Peter looked closely and saw the pastry contained ground grass type pokemon food, as well as natural herbs and berries.

"How about a change?" He said looking down at Nettle.

Nettle was already looking in awe of the many colourful treats on display.

"Its a treat and at the same time healthy for you!" Peter said cheerfully, using some tongs to grab one of the green pastries form the display.

"Vi Snivy!" Nettle said happily thanking Peter.

"Oh Pokepuffs!" Jade exclaimed, "Lets see if there is something for you too tepig!"

She scanned the display until she came to a orange and black bun, the stake in the top read "For Fire." She grabbed one and placed it carefully on her try.

"Tepig!" the pig looked up at her happily.

They group headed over to their table and sat down. Peter and Jade each cut their pokepuff in half and placed them on a small plate on the floor in front on their Pokemon.

Nettle picked up a half and sniffed it. It smelled like crushed berries and cut grass which made his mouth start to water. He took a large bite, completely filling his mouth with the pastry, as he bit down to chew the volume of food in his mouth forced his cheeks to bulge like a hamsters. He was rewarded with a wonderful taste of lemon grass and oran berry amongst so many other herbs he could make out. Hurriedly gulping down the first mouthful he took another large chomp.

Tepig looked over and saw how much Nettle was enjoying his cake. Without a second thought he took a huge bite of the first slice. He got a taste of charcoal and roasted berries with some spicy overtones.

"Teeepiig! He exclaimed happily, spraying crumbs onto his plate.

Peter and Jade smiled at their pokemon enjoying their food, they too decided it was time to eat.

"Great battle sis!" Jade said, before shovelling some noodles into her mouth.

"Yeah, well.. " Kelly began, swallowing a spoonful of the broth, "I was lucky tranquill evolved when she did. I was off guard up till then."

"Yeah, we thought pidove was done for." Jade nodded, glancing at Peter who was noisily slurping a noodle into his mouth.

"Yeah," Peter paused chewing, "And that poliwrath of yours is amazing, so fast and powerful. Which reminds me, they not joining us?"

"Oh no no!" Kelly said, "They can get a bit messy, I will pick something up for them before we leave."

"Last time poliwrath broke two chairs and a table..." Jade giggled.

"And the door to the place!" Kelly finished for her.

Peter chuckled, "I see.. Probably better this way!"

"Yeah," Kelly laughed, "Anyway, yeah I worked very hard with him - he did so well, especially as we haven't trained for a few days.." Kelly paused thinking, "Have to make sure we get back into a routine tomorrow."

"If you are going to do some training tomorrow, would you be able to help Nettle and I with a few pointers? We could be your sparring buddies!" Peter volunteered.

"That would be great," Kelly said, slurping up some noodles, "I would be happy to help you guys."

Peter smiled and nodded, "Hear that Nettle? You up for some training?" He looked down to see both Nettle and Tepig were finished with their treats.

"Snivy." Nettle said looking up at Peter, wiping his mouth.

"Great!" Peter replied, glancing back at Kelly "We're ready for you!"

Kelly chuckled, looking over at the snivy. He was helping Tepig clean some of the cake off his snout with a napkin.

Once the group had finished their dinner, Kelly went over to the desert counter and bought a water and flying type poke puff for her victorious Pokemon before they all headed back to the Pokemon centre. Wishing each other goodnight they returned to their rooms.

Peter washed and brushed before removing Nettles eye patch and checking his eye.

"Good," Peter said, "Its not hurting?"

"Vi." Nettle replied, waving his hand.

"Alright great!" Peter smiled, replacing the eye patch gently. and patting Nettle on the head.

Peter put away his things and climbed into bed. Nettle struggled up onto the bed besides him and curled up, falling asleep almost the instant his head touched the sheets.

Peter turned off the light and closed his eyes.


	10. Chapter 10 - Training Day

Chapter 10 - Training Day

Nettle was woken up by the sound of the washroom door clicking shut. He looked up maneuvering his head to see the door, allowing his eye to adjust to the light. He saw Peter packing his wash bag into his bag.

"Sniiiii.." He yawned loudly, stretching.

"Morning." Peter said cheerfully, leaning over the scratch Nettle on the back on his head, "I hope you had a good sleep!"

"Snivy!" Nettle said happily, pushing his head into Peters hand, enjoying the scratching.

"Good." Peter said, sounding more serious.

Peter got up and walked over to the fruit bowl on the desk by the window. He leaned on the desk looking outside. The sky was covered in thick grey clouds, although the sun was struggling to shine through the small gaps in the cover. Peter took a banana from the fruit bowl, starting off the peel he stepped back over to Nettle.

"Here." He said passing the banana down to the snivy.

Nettle took the banana with both hands, carefully he peeled the skin from the top of the fruit and munched it.

Peter picked up his bag in one hand flung it onto his shoulder. Nettle jumped up into Peters arms still clutching the banana and the two left to meet Jade and Kelly for breakfast.

Turning into the main reception Peter was surprised to see Kelly and Jade standing waiting for them. Jade stood looking into her Pokegear, whilst tepig played around her feet trying to catch the pom pom on his curly tail. Kelly was glancing at her watch, dewott stood obediently to attention next to her, as if he was on guard duty.

"Snivy!" Nettle waved through a mouthful on banana. He jumped down carefully, taking care to not drop his banana. He ran over to tepig who greeted him warmly with a loud "Tepig!"

Nettle snapped a chunk of the banana off and handed it to tepig who chomped it down, thanking Nettle through each chew.

"Vi." Nettle said closing his eye and looking up. As he did so he broke off the last piece of banana and held it up for dewott.

Dewott bowed politely and took the banana from him.

"Ott." He said thanking him.

"Vi." Nettle said indifferently although he was trying his best not to smile. He turned to see Peter stood next to him he pulled on his trouser leg and offered Peter the empty banana skin.

"Thanks," Peter sighed taking the skin, "Well since those guys have eaten its our turn!"

"Theres no time for that!" Kelly snapped, "We have training to do!"

"Oh but.." Peter was cut off as Kelly threw an apple at him.

"Here's an apple," She said, "No time to waste." She turned and walked towards the doors.

Having caught the apple, Peter stared at it for a few moments.

"She's in battle mode." Jade sniggered, tapping Peter on the arm with her elbow, "Lets go before she tells us off any more!"

The group stepped outside, it was muggy with very little breeze. Peter took off his white coat and rolled up the sleeves on his shirt.

Nettle and tepig lead the way along with Jade, whilst Peter, Kelly and dewott brought up the rear.

Tepig and Nettle were playing chase around Jade's feet, having fun chasing each other and once one of them was tagged, running in the opposite direction. Jade was bringing up the map on her Pokedex, looking down at the screen she could see a park a short distance away which had training facilities. She turned her head back to Kelly,

"Just up ahead!" She smiled.

Kelly nodded determinedly.

Tepig tagged Nettle by tapping his snout on the leaf on his tail. Nettle laughed, turning to run back in the opposite direction - right towards the busy highway.

Suddenly Nettle felt himself slam into a furry object, the impact making him fall backwards onto his bottom. Looking up he saw dewott standing over him holding out his paw.

"Ott." Dewott said bowing, 'Here.'

Nettle looked around him as he took dewotts paw and got back to his feet. He had been running directly into the road, he hadn't seen it when he span around. A huge truck roared by, making Nettle take a step backwards at the noise.

Quickly composing himself Nettle stood up straight.

"Vi." he said, bluntly, closing his eye and turning his head upwards.

Dewott bowed again. Once he had seen Nettle turn away he shook his head.

Nettle paused, and looked back over his right shoulder at dewott.

"Snivy." He added, softly 'thanks.'

Dewott bowed again and smiled as Tepig came racing over and playfully butted in between them, making them laugh.

The group continued on to the park, Nettle sticking close to dewott the whole way.

They trudged up a large bank, at the top were 3 pokemon battle courts surrounded by some netting. At one side was a wall with some graffiti on it where trainers had drawn targets. The other sides were open, with a couple of small benches scattered around for spectators.

As they approached the first court, Peter saw a middle aged lady in a long blue coat training a Servine. She was throwing up sticks and having the servine hit them with leaf blade. The servine was easily cutting them in too and whilst Peter had been watching at least, it had not missed once.

"Your servine is very impressive!" Peter called.

The lady turned around slowly to face him.

"Why thank you!" She grinned.

"May I?" Peter enquired, stepping forwards.

"Of course!" The lady said, "Please, Zeus just loves to meet new people!"

As Peter stepped towards servine it lowered its head to left him stroke its muzzle. Its green skin had a deep shine and its golden V shaped collar swept gracefully over its shoulders. It had a small elegant head crest which lead down the centreline of its back where it had 3 large healthy leaves with a forth bigger one capping its tail.

Seeing Peter petting the servine Nettle came scurrying over. He stopped, in awe of the evolved pokemon.

"Zeus is in really excellent shape!" Peter remarked, still stroking the servine.

"Thanks!" The lady smiled, "I have had Zeus here from an egg! And is that your snivy?" She crouched down next to Nettle, noting his scars and eye patch, "It looks like he has really been in the wars..."

"Yeah," Peter said, "I kinda rescued him from an abusive trainer. Unfortunately not soon enough to save his eye though."

"Oh the poor deer!" The lady said sympathetically, stroking Nettles nose "Some people just treat their pokemon like slaves, they dont see the bond of friendship that comes with them."

Nettle shook his leafy tail and closed his eye enjoying the petting.

"Right!" Peter agreed, "Especially as Nettle here is such a gentle guy, his nature is quite different to other snivy, he doesnt have any of that superior attitude you see with others..." He paused looking at the servine next to him, "No offence intended."

"Haha," The old lady laughed, "Dont believe everything you read in text books! My Zeus is the kindest and most gentle pokemon you could wish to meet, but in battle he is as strong as the best of them!"

Peter nodded and smiled.

"Im Peter by the way," He quickly added, "Im a Pokemon doctor."

"Agatha." The woman replied, climbing back to her feet.

"Hey!" Kelly called from the other side of the court, "Come on! You cant stand there talking all day!"

"Ah right," Peter said, glancing back over his shoulder, "We are supposed to be training!"

"Oh?" Agatha said, raising her eyebrows, "Your little snivy still likes to battle?"

"Yeah, although he has a lot to learn." Peter replied.

"Maybe Zeus can teach him a thing or two?" Agatha suggested, "what moves does your snivy know?"

"Snivy, snivy!" Nettle said frustratedly 'Im Nettle!'

"He knows tackle and vine whip." Peter replied, "But the main reason for todays training was to see what we can do about his blind side. He has lost a lost of spacial awareness you see."

"Hm." Agatha frowned, "Zeus, what do you think?" She turned to her pokemon.

"Servine!" Came the response.

"Alright!" Agatha replied, "Zeus says he can help," She crouched down, "Nettle is it?"

"Vi." Nettle replied proudly.

Zeus stepped forwards and lowered its head to Nettles level. As Peter and Agatha looked on the two Pokemon seemed to be discussing something.

Jade came trotting over and tapped Peter on the shoulder.

"You better get over there," She said, "Kelly is ready to go and still in battle mode!"

"Um," Peter scratched the back of his head, nervously, "Agatha here mentioned her servine may be able to help Nettle with a few pointers and since Nettle and Servine are both the same species I thought it might do Nettle some good.."

"You better tell Kelly... " Jade said, "Hi ... Agatha." She added, giving a wave to the lady.

Peter left Nettle with Zeus and Agatha and walked over to explain his plan to Kelly. She was having dewott slice blades of grass she was tossing up into the air, with his scalchops.

"No, thats fine..." Kelly said after Peter had explained, "Go ahead."

Peter and Jade looked at each other.

"Thanks," Peter replied, "I hope this doesnt mess up any training plans you had in mind."

"Ooohh, no." Kelly said, "Its not like I had prepared anything or waited for you for ages this morning!"

"Um, well I am sure we can keep training after Nettle has learned something from Servine?" Peter suggested.

"No thats fine," Kelly said, "Besides, we have Jade and Tepig to help us as a fallback plan!"

"Tepig..." The pig pokemon nervously took a couple of steps back behind Jade's legs.

Peter rejoined Agatha and the two grass type pokemon just as Zeus was performing a leaf tornado for Nettle. The Servine span its body building up a whirlwind of energy emanating from its tail. It used this vortex skilfully picking up a rock, keeping it suspended in the tornado before slamming it back into the ground shattering it into small splinters.

Nettle clapped as Zeus landed gracefully in front of him.

"Servine." Zeus said, 'now you try.'

Peter and Agatha looked on as Nettle started to spin, jumping off the ground as he had seen Zeus do. A small vortex started to form at the tip of his tail.

"Youre doing it Nettle!" Peter exclaimed.

Nettle was using all his concentration, but the vortex was not growing at all. Nettle stopped spinning, unable to hold it any longer. He landed on the ground dizzy.

Zeus shook his head, he stepped over to the snivy and barked some instructions whilst giving demonstrations of what position his body should be at each stage.

"Zeus looks like a great teacher." Peter said, looking over at Agatha.

"Yes, he is." Agatha said, "You see, Zeus and I work at a Pokemon college - so he's used to helping other Pokemon!"

"Thats great!" Peter exclaimed, "Its lucky we ran into you then!" He said, watching as Nettle tried the move again.

This time the vortex started to grow, but Nettle was again unable to hold it for long enough for it to develop into a tornado.

Suddenly there was a large explosion behind them. Agatha and Peter span around to see Kelly shouting at Jade across the court at the far side of the park. "You have to be quicker than that! He had to dodge it! Try again." She bellowed, red faced.

Jade just stood hanging her head and Tepig climbed back to his feet and trotted over to her.

Peter and Agatha glanced at each other with eyebrows raised,

"Your friend is quite intense," She said, "But I bet that means she has some really powerful pokemon!"

"Yeah, today I am learning all about Kelly's passion for training." Peter replied.

The pair turned back to see Nettle ready to try leaf tornado again.

"I know you can do it Nettle!" Peter called to his pokemon.

Nettle paused and looked over to him, he nodded confidently. He desperately wanted to show Peter he could master this move and not let him down.

As Nettle jumped into the air Peter concentrated on his pokemons movements. Watching the way he started to spin and the position of his leafy tail as a vortex started to form. He focused himself, believing that Nettle could do it.

Suddenly Nettle felt a boost of confidence, he started to spin faster and faster, he could feel the powerful tornado building at the tip of his tail.

Nettle stopped spinning, controling the tornado spinning from his tail. He selected a small boulder on the side of the court allowing the winy vortex to consume it. He raised his tail and the tornado moved upwards, taking the rock with it. With a flick of his tail Nettle slammed the object into the ground, smashing it into splinters.

Nettle allowed his body to rotate twice slowly before flicking his tail forwards putting himself into a somersault and landing gracefully next to Zeus.

The Servine looked down at the snivy and nodded approvingly.

Nettle was overjoyed at being able to complete the move, his mouth wide and eye closed he couldnt contain his joy.

"That was awesome buddy!" Peter exclaimed, rushing to pick him up. He held the little pokemon out in front of him at arms length, looking into his happy face.

"Snivy!" Nettle laughed.

"Good technique and excellent power." Agatha nodded, "Very good, if he can keep practising that he will be quite formidable on the battlefield."

Peter put Nettle down and he rushed back to Zeus who seemed to congratulate him and give him some more pointers.

"Wow." Peter remarked, looking over at the lady, "Such power from such a little snivy."

"And you?" Agatha asked.

"Sorry?" Peter replied, frowning.

"I was watching you, the way you were so focused. Did you feel the connection?" Agatha smiled.

"I... I guess I felt something.. " Peter said thoughtfully, "I was trying to focus my energy on Nettle, I wanted him to succeed. Kind of stupid I know.."

"The connection between Pokemon and trainer," Agatha began, "To know what your Pokemon is thinking and feeling is the key to becoming a great trainer. Keep practicing together." She smiled knowingly at Peter before turning back to Zeus and Nettle, "Again!"

From the other side of the park dewott was squaring off against poliwrath when he heard a loud noise followed by a sharp gust of wind. He looked over towards Peter and Nettle to see Nettle landing gracefully completing another leaf tornado. He allowed himself to grin at the sight and nodding to himself.

"Lets take a break." Kelly said, noticing Nettles new move also.

Jade sighed a sigh of relief and jogged over to stand next to Kelly, watching Nettles training.

"Impressive." Kelly said through a grin, "Who would have thought that tiny snivy could be so powerful."

"Dewott." Dewott replied to her.

"You see that tepig?" Jade said crouching down next to her pokemon, "We need to keep training so we can keep up with them!"

"Tepig!" Tepig replied confidently, blasting embers from his nostrils.

"Alright!" Agatha said, "keep practising that leaf tornado to build even more power!"

"Snivy!" Nettle said, landing proudly after another successful move.

"The next thing you mentioned was the spacial awareness because of his bad eye?" Agatha said, turning to Peter.

"Yeah, do you have any suggestions?" Peter asked.

"Well, very much like people when once sense is lost, we can develop others further to compensate. Usually with sight loss you see hearing developed to compensate." Agatha mused, "Perhaps your snivy is relying too much on 'seeing' where things are coming from rather than using its other senses."

"Huh.." Peter said thoughtfully, tapping his finger on his chin, "So we should focus on sound rather than sight?"

"It would be a good starting point," Agatha said, "as well as building his speed and agility."

Agatha began jotting some notes down on a small brown covered notepad. She ripped off a page and handed it to Peter.

"Here are a couple of exercises you could do together." Agatha said.

Peter scanned the notes, a few games such as blind mans buff and Marco Polo were listed as well as some suggestions for agility training.

"Thanks a lot!" Peter said enthusiastically, "You have been such a huge help, how can I replay you?"

"Oh, dont be silly!" The lady said laughing out loud, "Being able to help your snivy learn something new was all the payment I needed!"

"Servine!" Zeus added, stepping over to her side.

"Thank you both so much." Peter said.

"Snivy, vi!" Nettle added.

Servine nodded.

"I expect we will meet again at some point!" Agatha said, "I'm looking forward to seeing how the training goes!"

"We will work hard!" Peter said, glancing down at Nettle.

"Good, you will need to give Zeus a challenge next time we meet." She smiled, "Come along then Zeus, lets head home."

Peter waved as the two left the grounds. He looked down at Nettle and a feeling of pride hit him.

"Well done buddy!" Peter exclaimed, "What you accomplished today was so amazing!"

"Snivy." Nettle replied, smiling up at Peter. He felt proud also, not only that he had not let Peter down, but also proud to be with a trainer who actually cared about him.

The group headed towards a restaurant for dinner, on the menu today was Pizza. The group filed in and ordered two of the biggest Pizza's to share between them, one with extra anchovies for dewott who stayed out of his pokeball with them for dinner.

It didn't take long for their food to arrive and the group tucked in with gusto. Nettle carefully took a slice of the pizza, struggling to hold it due to its sheer size in comparison with him. He sat backwards with one end of the slice in his mouth whilst the rest almost covered him like a blanket. He gnawed happily enjoying the new flavours.

"We'll have to get moving if we are going to make it to Eindoak Town for the harvest festival." Jade said, glancing up from her pokegear which was resting on the table.

"Oh yeah!" Peter exclaimed, "I have always wanted to visit there since I was a kid... I heard that last year the whole castle was moved to a new spot?"

"Yeah it was all in the news," Kelly replied, "Even Reshiram and Zekrom were involved! it must have been amazing to witness that."

Both Peter and Jade nodded in agreement.

"Hey seems like that same group of trainers from the museum were there then as well!" Jade added, spinning her device around on the table to Peter could see it.

"Oh yeah, huh." Peter said, leaning forwards to view the screen, "They must be some kind of detectives or something."

"It doesnt say anything like that here... " Jade continued, spinning the pokegear back to face her and scrolling through the news articles, "Although one of them does look familiar from somewhere.. I swear I have seen that hair somewhere before."

It wasn't too long before there was only one slice of pizza remaining.

"Anyone want to help me with this last bit?" Peter said, tearing the last piece in two.

Peter looked around the table. Nettle looked stuffed, as did dewott, both the pokemon shook their heads wearily.

"No thanks." Kelly said, "I couldn't eat another bite."

"Tepig!" Tepig exclaimed, jumping up and resting his front feet on the table.

Jade reached over and took the last slice, ripping it in two she looked at Tepig,

"Alright, lets have half each." She said, handing one piece to her Pokemon. It snuffled it up happily.

After they had settled the bill they returned to the Pokemon centre for their last night there. As the gang stepped through the doors Nurse Joy immediately called Peter over to her.

"We'll catch you tomorrow." Kelly said, heading up the steps to the rooms.

Peter nodded and hurried over to the reception desk with Nettle in his arms.

"Hi," Nurse Joy said happily, "Someone called for you, it was kind of hard to make out as a Samurott kept barking in the background, but I think he said he was your father."

Peter laughed, "Sounds like him."

"You can use the phones over there." Nurse Joy pointed to a row of video phones on the wall under the staircase.

"Thanks." Peter said, turning and walking towards them. He felt a bit guilty he hadn't updated his father sooner. Still, the surprise of him with Nettle should make up for it he thought to himself.

He let Nettle jump onto the counter in front of the screen, before keying in the numbers into the pad on the right. The phone rang a few times before a "Please leave a message" sign appeared.

"Oh, uh, hey dad its me," Peter began awkwardly - he was terrible with answering machines, "Um I got your message so giving you a call back. I hope you are doing good. The journey is going well and I guess, I caught my first Pokemon a few days back.."

"Snivy?" Nettle turned back to look at him, raising one eyebrow and putting his hands on his hips.

"And, umm, I met some new friends and we are travelling together... at least until we get to Opilucid City." Peter scratched his head, "Say hi Nettle.." He put his hand on Nettles back.

"Sniiiivy!" Nettle waved at the screen.

"Well, I guess I will try and call you again when we get to Castellia City." Peter continued, "Hope you and Samurott are fine, ummm bye then!" Peter waved at the screen briefly before hitting the disconnect button.

It wasn't unusual for Peters father to be busy outside on the farm, even at this time in the evening - probably doing the rounds checking the Mareep flock.

Peter and Nettle raced up the steps and back to their room.

Before turning in Peter did the usual checks to make sure Nettle's eye was alright before they both closed their eyes and turned in for the night.


	11. Chapter 11 - The Doctor Will See You Now

Chapter 11 -The Doctor will see you now

Peter woke up at the feeling of something hitting his chest. He opened his eyes and glanced around him. He could hear a rustling sound and Nettle breathing heavily. He glanced down and saw Nettle was running in his sleep, his stubby legs using Peter as a treadmill.

He gently rolled the snivy onto his back and over the other way. Nettle blew a raspberry in his sleep and giggled. Must be a good dream Peter thought. He closed his eyes again for what seemed like only 2 seconds before the sunlight filling the room caused him to wake up again.

He sat up, Nettle was still curled up asleep beside him on top of the sheets. He carefully slid out of bed and went to brush his teeth and wash.

A couple of minutes later he heard a knock at the door, then a click of the handle as the door opened.

"Hey Nettle!" Jade's voice carried through the washroom door as Nettle greeted her happily.

Peter finished up in the bathroom and gathered his things, packing each item carefully away into his washbag. He stepped into the main room and saw Jade showing Nettle something on her Pokegear. Nettle looked really fascinated and kept pointing and looking up at Jade for reassurance.

"Hey!"" Peter said packing his washbag into his bag by the side of the bed.

"Hey good morning!" Jade said, "Nettle let me in, I hope thats ok?"

"No problem," Peter smiled, "What are you guys doing?"

"I came up to see if you were ready to get some breakfast," Jade began, "Whilst you were busy I thought I would show Nettle some video I took of some of Kelly's battles back in Kanto."

"Oh really?!" Peter said, trying to contain his excitement. He glanced over Jade's shoulder and just caught the end of Lapras decimating an opponent with a body slam. Nettle gasped and clapped.

Once Peter had finished packing, the trio made their way down to the restaurant area. As they walked in Nettle spotted Kelly, dewott and tepig all waiting for them at one of the tables. He rushed over to them as Jade and Peter went to grab some food from the counter.

"Snivy!" Nettle shouted as he approached his friends as a good morning greeting.

The others replied happily, including Kelly.

They were shortly joined by Jade and Peter who slid onto the bench next to each other. Jade glanced over to see Peter had once again chosen the most bland cereal available. He scooped up a huge spoonful and munched on it, whilst at the same time digging in his bag with his free hand. He produced a small china dish and Nettles Pokemon food. He lifted Nettle up onto the table and filled the dish, Nettle picked up a nugget of the food and munched on it.

"Were you here waiting long?" Peter asked Kelly, swallowing his first mouthful of cereal.

"I couldn't sleep." She replied, "I just had to get up and do something!"

"Oh thats too bad." Peter replied.

"Unlike me..." Jade said laughing, "I went out like a light!"

"Tepig has settled down then?" Peter smiled, "I thought you were going to say he kept you both up all night again!"

"No he was fine." Kelly replied.

"Guys, I was thinking," Jade jumped in, "We have been doing a lot of walking lately, haven't we?"

"Yeees..." Kelly replied, seemingly knowing what Jade was about to say next.

"Well, there is a bus to Castelia City, it stops right before the Skyarrow bridge." Jade said quickly, "How about we take a bus ride for a change?"

"I have no problems with that!" Peter said, taking another huge chomp of cereal, "My feet could do with a rest!"

"I guess its settled then." Kelly said, "When does it leave?"

"We have about an hour." Jade said, "It passes the Pokemon Centre, you just have to flag it down."

"Fine, sounds good." Kelly replied as she sipped on a glass of Orange juice.

Nettle finished his bowl of food and proceeded to jump down to be with the other pokemon. They seemed to converse for a few moments before tepig and Nettle started to play tag, with dewott looking over them like a big brother.

Tepig tagged Nettle and then squealed with laughter and ran at full speed out into the main reception area, his four hooves sounding like a racehorse on the tiled floor. Nettle jumped around and scurried after him on his short stubby legs, the large leaf on his tail swinging wildly as he tried his best to keep up.

Dewott sighed and strolled after them.

Tepig rounded the corner and ran through the doorway into the large reception area, pulling a huge skid as his trotters failed to grip on the smooth floor. He bashed into some suitcases which were stacked next to a bench startling the two girls who sat there. One popped open and showered the pig with various items of clothing.

Ceasing the opportunity, Nettle ran over and tagged tepig before turning and running away as fast as he could. Tepig shook his head to clear his vision and noticed Nettle disappearing under a row of seats in the centre of the room. People shrieked as the snivy pushed past the legs of the people that sat there waiting their turn to see Nurse Joy. Tepig jumped up and followed his friend under the row of seats calling after him with each step.

Dewott stood in the doorway and surveyed the area calmly. He saw the two girls on the far side of the reception, one was pointing to a row of seats in front of them in the centre of the room, the other was busily re-packing their suitcase.

As dewott looked over to the other row of seats he could see people throwing their legs up and looking under the bench, occasionally one of two of the seats wobbled and the people jumped up.

Suddenly Nettle exploded from the side of the benches and ran towards the entrance.

At that precise second a short girl walked through carrying a large box. She was staggering slightly as the box rustled from side to side. Her blue eyes were staring directly ahead to the main desk as the concentrated on keeping the box steady.

Nettle looked back to the benches with his right eye and gave a wave to tepig as he emerged.

Seeing the girl tepig called out to his friend but Nettle continued on thinking it was a trick.

Seeing what was about to happen dewott took a deep breath to call out to the pokemon.

"NETTLE, STOP RIGHT NOW!" Came a firm voice.

The reception fell into silence, Nettle skidded to a stop just in front of the girl, his tail brushing her leg, he looked up and jumped back a few steps when he realised how close he was to crashing into the girl. He turned his head scanning the room for the owner of the stern voice.

He looked over to see Peter, Kelly, Jade and dewott standing in the doorway. Nettle hadn't recognised Peters voice, he had never heard him speak so sternly before.

"Nettle, return." Peter said sternly holding out Nettles pokeball.

Nettle took a step forward, he clasped his hands together and shook his head sorrily as he was surrounded by a beam of red energy and disappeared into the ball.

"Tepig, you return as well." Jade said, holding out Tepigs ball as he came trotting back over to them. He too vanished in a beam of red light.

Peter stepped over to the young girl carrying the box.

"Im so sorry if they caused you any trouble." He said, "they get very excited sometimes."

"No, thats fine!" The girl said, " actually I didnt even see them!"

The box rustled again and the girl staggered slightly.

"Can I help you?" Peter asked, extending his arms towards the box.

"Oh, thank you." The girl replied, allowing Peter to take the box, "Even though this emolga is sick he still moves about a whole lot."

"Oh, what happened?" Peter asked, walking with the girl to the main desk.

"Its my fault!" The girl said as tears started to form in her eyes.

She paused to wipe her eyes with a handkerchief before continuing.

"He must have stirred up a bunch of Foongus, about six of them shot poison at him before I noticed what was happening." She frowned nervously.

"You're in the right place, he will be safe here." Peter said, "but do you mind me asking, where is his pokeball?"

"Oh this Emolga is a wild Pokemon." She replied, "I'm a Pokemon watcher, I was studying Pokemon in the area when I saw this unfold. I couldn't just leave him."

Peter placed the box down gently on the counter.

"Thanks." The girl said, "And honestly, you're Pokemon didn't bother me at all." She glanced at Jade also, "Either of them. I was concentrating too much on this box!"

Jade smiled and nodded, "Well they would have done had Peter not gotten Nettle to stop before he ran into you."

"But he did stop." The girl smiled, "And no harm done."

In the background the two girls with the suitcases let out a loud sigh, whilst looking in their direction. Seemingly listening in on the conversation.

"Well, Nurse Joy will take it from here," Peter said, "Thats a really kind thing you did to bring him here."

"I'm sure anyone who loves Pokemon would do the same." She smiled.

Peter nodded and looked along the counter, nurse Joy was nowhere to be seen. Looking up above the doorway Peter could see the icon for "surgery in progress" lit up.

"Hmm." Peter said, "Looks like Nurse Joy is busy... would you mind if I took a look at emolga?"

"He's a Pokemon Doctor." Jade added.

"Oh yes," Peter blushed, "My name is Peter, I'm a Pokemon Doctor on my way to Opilucid City."

"Sure!" The girl replied, "I had a feeling you were something like that, the way you were so helpful! My name is Susan by the way!"

"Good to meet you, Susan!" Peter said as he carefully opened the box to reveal the pokemon inside.

It was white on its face and belly, with a black 'hood' which covered the top of its head and ears. Its circular face had two bright yellow cheeks. Two large folds of fur connected its arms to its chest to form a natural wing suit. It was rolling from side of side and groaning softly with its eyes tightly closed.

Peter carried out some routine checks, confirming the foongus poison. He rummaged around in his bag and pulled out some herbs and his pestle and mortar dish.

A few minutes passed as Peter mixed the remedy, by this time Kelly and dewott had also joined the group to watch.

Peter gently picked up emolga's head and spoon fed him the mixture. It coughed slightly as it struggled to swallow the bitter tasting mixture. Peter briefly flashed back to when Nettle had been poisoned and remembered how worried he was.

"Alright." Peter said, wiping his hands in a towel from his bag, "It may take a few minutes for this to..." He paused as he looked around, a large group had gathered around him to watch, "..to..to... ahem, for this to work." He completed.

"Can you look at my Weedle next?" A young boy looked up at him.

"And then me!" Someone else piped up.

"And me!" called another.

Kelly laughed and slapped Peter on the back, "Form a queue and the doctor will see you in order!" She laughed.

Peter looked around startled as people formed an orderly line.

Peter worked his way through the line of pokemon patients, tenderly treating each one. A weedle with a cold, an eevee with a bad leg, an oshawott with a headache, a pidove with a hurt wing... Just then the doors beside the counter slid open and Nurse Joy appeared in the doorway.

"Oh my!" She exclaimed, seeing Peter treating the queue of pokemon.

Peter looked up from the pidove, part way through bandaging its wing.

"I hope you dont mind.." Peter said, nervously scratching the back of his head.

"Emooooo!" The wild emolga cried, swooping down and landing at Nurse Joys feet.

"Ah! he's much better!" Susan smiled, "Nurse Joy this pokemon doctor completely healed this wild emolga from Foongus poison!"

"And my Weedle!" The young boy called out.

"And my dear sweet eevee!" A woman called in the background.

A chorus of others joined in.

"Well, what can I say to that!" Nurse Joy smiled, "Thanks for your help!" She said turning to Peter.

"THE BUS!" Jade called out.

Peter, Kelly and dewott looked over to the glass doors to see a large green bus pull up outside. It had Skyarrow Bridge showing on the name plate.

"Quickly, grab your stuff!" Kelly said nudging Peter.

Peter quickly grabbed the supplies he was using and stuffed them into his bag along with Nettles Pokeball.

"All in a days work, Nurse Joy!" Peter smiled, as Kelly grabbed his arm and pulled him off down towards the doors.

"Thanks!" Susan called, waving.

One by one the others shouted their thanks as Peter, Kelly, Jade and dewott disappeared through the doors and onto the bus.

The bus driver was a kindly old man with a large well groomed grey moustache. He wore a black suit and tie with a gold tie clip. His hat was emblazoned with a logo of the bus they were riding in.

"You folks were cutting it fine!" He smiled as the group stumbled aboard.

Kelly smiled politely at him as they took their seats.

Peter sat down with his bag on his lap and looked out of the window towards the Pokemon centre, a group of people had emerged outside and were waving them off. Peter waved back as the bus pulled away.

He smiled to himself and leaned back in the seat, resting his eyes.


End file.
